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US Digital TV Switchover Delayed Until June

Posted by samzenpus on from the we'll-do-it-later dept.

necro81 writes "The Delay DTV Act was passed first by the Senate, now by the House, and will be signed by the President. The hard cutoff for turning off analog TV broadcasts in the US has been pushed out to June 12th. The act had earlier failed to gain a 2/3rds majority in the House, but passed this afternoon with a simple majority. The bill allows stations to cease analog transmissions at any point between Feb 17th (the old cutoff) and June 12th, and many have signaled they will do so."

8 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Deja vu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In June, you'll find that there are many people who have not bought digital receivers for their televisions. June is the new February.

    1. Re:Deja vu by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. Because of the transition, Sweeps was moved from February to March 5.

      My dad thinks the delay is great, and he hopes Congress will suddenly decide to cancel Digital television completely. Well, he is approaching 80, so maybe he's not thinking straight. Today he said to me, "Just watch, in two more years they'll stop broadcast completely and make us all upgrade to cable. The politicians love to screw us."

      According to the Nielsen Ratings Company, only 5% of households are not ready. So we postponed this switch for a measly 5% of the nation. Pathetic. ----- The other 95% already have access to cable, dish, or a DTV converter box. Here in Pennsylvania, the FCC placed the estimate at 99% ready! What the heck are we waiting for???

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    2. Re:Deja vu by hedwards · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's worse than that, due to the proviso that channels may change on their own at any time after Feb 17th, we now have a situation where nobody really knows when the switch is going to happen.

      The same people that were still not aware that it was going to happen this month, are going to be caught even more off guard when channels switch over in a random fashion.

      I cannot imagine how this is good news for anybody.

  2. Confusion by daveywest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason for the date change: a bunch of elderly and poor TV viewers are confused about the switchover.

    The result: now everyone is confused.

    President O, aren't there more important things for you to be working on?

    1. Re:Confusion by daveywest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Before today's vote, only 6% of the population was confused by the changeover according to Neilson Media. That means you reached 94% of the population.

      94% comprehension is a pretty good result.

      I can only imagine how many people are going to be confused by a slow, staggered changeover instead of the solid Feb. 17 deadline. Its kind of like ripping off a band aid on a hairy arm. Its a lot more painful if you do it slowly.

  3. Re:Many stations switchin anyway... by BorgAssimilator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I applaud those stations. The confusion coming from the government is _not_ being fair to the television stations.

    --
    "Intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"
    -Londo Mollari
  4. Re:Washington comes together... by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

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  5. Screw the protesters by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are they going to do vote the head of the FCC out? (the FCC head is appointed).

    People with time on their hands to protest are generally useless anyhow. The fact they haven't gotten it together to prepare for the switch reinforces that for me.

    I hope they are going to compensate the new owners of the bandwidth for the delay.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'