Obama To Sign Bill On Digital TV Transfer Delay

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama will sign a bill to give consumers more time to get ready for the switch from analog to digital television broadcasts. The switch under current law is set for Feb. 17.

The Senate earlier this week passed the bill to delay that until June, but it failed in the House under a procedure that required a two-thirds vote for passage.

The Senate passed the bill again Thursday night, and the House plans to take another run at it next week under regular procedures. That means a simple majority vote is required.

Gibbs said Obama will sign the bill because he wants more time to ensure that people don't lose their television signals.

Comments

[OldUncleDave]

If 6.5 million people lose their teevee signal, they just might begin to think for themselves.
The rulers cannot afford to let that happen, no matter how much they want the two-way capability offered by digital broadcasting..
There will be a delay.

[xstevejx]

I don't think there's anything in the bill that keeps broadcasters from switching to all digital on the original date, so I can see a lot of analog signals disappearing at that date anyway if it costs broadcasters any more to keep them through the extension period. I don't really see the extension changing things that much.

Besides the coupon issue, if people didn't know about the transition, they obviously don't watch TV anyway and wouldn't be affected since there are notices every darn commercial break (or in-between shows on PBS).

[hjfraser2002]

Most are already broadcasting the digital signal. Its just a delay in shutting off the analog. The only issue in switching is aome stations can not turn up the digital signal strength until they turn off the analog.

[desertdweller]

Actually, many are broadcasting DTV on alternate, lower-power channels. Once they switch over entirely to DTV, they will be using their "prime" frequencies with higher power.

[MuchMadness]

Everyone who is defending the Bush administration's incompetent handling of the digital transition is completely clueless. (Read about the digital cliff effect and what it will do to TV reception in rural areas.) President Obama is doing the right thing. He is saying that his administration will delay the transition to give more time to clean up the mess that the Republicans created.

[Zenzelae]

I got my converter boxes months ago, but ended up getting cable anyway. The digital pauses for minutes at a time and a lot of the new antenna's don't work.

[hjfraser2002]

Some of the stations still need to turn up the transmitters up to full strength. This will happen once the shut down the analog.

[jimrs6]

You mean someone could have got those boxes and coupons MONTHS ago? You must have had some secret inside info that these 6.5M people didn't get....

[MuchMadness]

Maybe those people had cable but lost their jobs and now can't afford cable.

[Tulka2]

I pay 150 dollars a month to comcast for cable so it's no skin off my nose, but i do not understand how switching to digital benifits any but the cable companies.

[jimrs6]

It benefits all the TV stations for whom broadcasting in digital only provides more options at lower costs. PBS released a statement stating this delay will cost it $22M. And it will free up spectrum for public services such as emergency response.

[hjfraser2002]

Cleaner signal to inject into the closed system is one benifit. Overall the transition costs each cable system $15,000 to $20,000 on an avgerage.

[Myshkin57]

The switch is to free up the airwaves so that there are clearer and more frequencies for emergency transmissions.

[bkbigfish]

The thing that really makes me shake my head about this whole switch-to-digital thing is the cost in the stimulus bill. So, the bill asks for 650 million dollars, right? At a cost of 40 dollars for the box, that comes out to 16 million, 250 thousand converter boxes. Really? There are that many households that can't come up with 40 bucks? I doubt it. And the dems are saying that they need MORE. HAHAHA!!!

[lj9283]

Just got that a little wrong Buffy;

"for costs associated with the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program, $650,000,000, to be available until September 30, 2009: Provided, That these funds shall be available for coupons and related activities, including but not limited to education, consumer support and outreach, as deemed appropriate and necessary to ensure a timely conversion of analog to digital television."

So they aren't gonna run out of money like the last tools did, and what they don't use doesn't get spent.

So few people know how to read....it's sad, eh, Buffy?

[hjfraser2002]

The leasing and sale of the opened freqs will more than cover the cost.

[MuchMadness]

Why should they have to come up with $40 bucks to keep an appliance working? If some guy came to my door and demanded $40 or else he would break my TV set, I would punch the guy in the nose.

[patnb]

Thank heavens for the extension- I still have not recieved my coupons! I put my request in almost 6 months ago, but they never came in the mail. I wrote them and asked for new coupons to be sent, but I onlt recieved auto-email responses saying lost coupons will not be replaced for any reason. I keep sending requests explaining the situation in detail, but it is clear that no human is reading the correspondence. Hopefully a competent person will take over the coupon program and replace missing coupons. I was told they invalidate lost coupons, so why not replace them?

[jimrs6]

Don't you have any children or friends who will front you the $80 until O bama pays you back?

[hjfraser2002]

Lets see, the program started under BUssh and how is it to blame O?

[bkbigfish]

So the switch has been advertised for freaking months. And we need an extension? There are going to be tons of people who don't do anything because they are lazy and stupid. So at the end of this extension, will there be another extension?

[Z2a]

I DONT EVEN HAVE A TV, ITS A WASTE OF TIME. IT EATS YOUR BRAIN CELLS.

[deckard70]

And come June, there will still be a few million people unprepared. What to do then? Delay again? Keep delaying until every single procrastinator is forced to act? No.

[lj9283]

This is good for me, as the converter I bought a burnt out last week, and they tell me it will take them 3-4 weeks to send me a replacement (after they receive it).

Being a conspiracy theorist, I wonder if the underfunding of the DTV program was actually a plot by the Media moguls to cause a portion of the population to stop watching TV for a while and to become reacquainted with the radio to pass the time of day.

Since so much radio is talk radio, and conservative talk radio is about 90% of what's on talk radio, was this a conspiracy by Bush and Company to further embed Rush and his like into the minds of the American public?

I think I have too much free time today.

[patnb]

lj9283, if there is any plot, it is certainly NOT to have americans stop watching TV. More likely, the plot would be to establish a digital connection to every household in America in order to track what is being watched. Of course, they also collected the names and addresses of the millions who requested the coupons, sorta like a partial census.

[Marlyn]

Where I live (San Diego, CA), the radio is all right wing talk, so I never listen.

[trudem2]

This whole digital conversion coming at a time when people are struggling to buy food and shelter, when jobs are being lost, when financial disaster is staring people in the face -- now millions of people will be deprived of tv communication. It' just one more example of how *.s.s. backwards this gov.e.r.nment in the US is. NEVER, EVER forward thinking with smarts and vision. Always bad decisions based on impure motives with no forethought to the impact on society.

[matt832]

Do you have a crystal ball? Want to share? This was planned OVER 10 years ago, and delayed in 2005 -- they did not just spring this on you. If you know what the economy will look like in 10 years you're better than 99.9999999999999% of the population!

So would you please define "Impure motive" as it applies in this situation? don't want the Fire. Police and National Guard to be able to talk to each other in an critical situation? That's pretty shortsighted on you part. I suggest you get the facts.

[jazzman]

6.5 million, mostly poor, ordinary peoples' needs being considered. Now I know I'm not living in Republcan world any more.

[jimrs6]

6,5M people who couldn't managed to execute what 20M+ plus others did over 18 mos. Most of them will be in same shape in June.

[osage]

Watching Republicans conduct their desperate efforts to cling to power is like watching a five-year-old trying to climb a greased flag pole and can't understand why he keeps sliding back to the bottom. The only Republicans more impotent than Boehner and McConnell are Bush and Cheney. The most powerful Republican in America right now is Rush Limbaugh, which is a very sad commentary on where today's Republican values are. Al Franken makes 59 Democratic Senators with just one more to go to reach the filibuster-proof 60 seats. If for some reason Democrats can't find a way to reach 60 Senate seats before the 2010 elections, does anyone believe that based on their current obstructionism Republicans will gain Senate seats in 2010? At that point, Republicans can obstruct and whine all they want because NO ONE will be listening to a political party of angry, irrational and irrelevant has-beens.

[sufi66]

These congressional "rules" that require a certain percentage vote strike me as unconstitutional.

A lot of time is wasted and deals are made so certain percentages can be reached on any given issue (vote). Why?.

I thought simple majorities were enough to pass legislation. Why the games?

[trudem2]

I agree. All of these Congressional "rules" are constructs that impede progress. They are part of the reason the US is so behind the industrial world on many social reforms and why nothing can ever get achieved in Congress because they impose political considerations when majority ought to rule -- period. All Senate and House rules (60-vote in Senate and two-thirds in the House) should be abolished immediately.

[MsLiz]

Perhaps a super majority is needed to take up business ahead of schedule. Representatives need to have sufficient time to familiarize themselves with legislation, and so there are rules allowing for a certain amount of time to elapse before a vote. If the situation warrants immediate action, a super majority can agree to an early vote.

[JScott]

So is the changeover in Feb. or not?

[jazzman]

Hold on to your old TV and rabbit ears. The switch over won't be until spring.

[jimrs6]

You don't need to keep using your old equipment. You have been able to receive digital signals for years.

[deckard70]

Hopefully most stations will still changeover in Feb. We don't know for sure because we don't know what the latest rewritten bill says. But we do know that most stations cannot afford to keep running the old analog transmitters ($10-15,000 a month), so they will want to change in Feb as planned.

[hjfraser2002]

Most stations have already began to broadcast in digital. The only delay will be the one to shut of the analog signal. The only real issue with the delay is that some of the stations have will not be able to turn up the digital to full strength until they shut off the analog.