Legislation Introduced to Push Back DTV Transition

By  |  Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8:45 am

Obama’s transition team has asked for it. FCC chairman Kevin Martin has spoke out publicly against it. Now, West Virginia Democratic Sen. John Rockefeller is attempting to get Congress to act on the digital TV deadline. Saying more time is needed, Rockefeller on Thursday introduced legislation to push back the date until June 12. It really isn’t clear if it will pass — telecoms such as AT&T and Verizon who have purchased the soon-to-be-vacated spectrum are opposed to any change. However,  there is some momentum in Congress to give people more time in light of the problems with the set-top box coupon program, it appears.

 
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  1. tced Says:

    The people who are not prepared are divided into two groups.
    The first group are the procrastinators. I have no mercy for them.
    The second group are the poor / elderly who can’t cope. I am in favor of extra help for them.

  2. Dave Barnes Says:

    “The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
    Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.” Source: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm

    That is a pretty small group of people we would be delaying the transition for.

    I believe that we could delay it for a decade and there would still be people who would caught unawares.

  3. seasoup Says:

    Some people will never budge on this until they are forced to. If I didn’t have cable, I wouldn’t go get a digital converter until the switch was flipped, I’m just too busy with other priorities. I imagine lots of people are in the same boat. If the switch is delayed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the percentage of people without the converter were nearly identical come June.