Senate passes new
digital TV delay bill
Created On: Thursday, 29 Jan 2009, 6:02 PM MST

Todd Dukart
WASHINGTON (KRQE) - The Senate has again passed a bill delaying the digital TV transition date to June 12, according to a television trade magazine.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/technology/technology_krqe_washington_dtv_delay_second_senate_bill_2009 01291801 Back to the house again. wish they would just give up.

Feb. 17 still the date for Utah's digital switch
Digital TV » Regardless of bill's outcome, Utah's commercial stations will proceed on schedule.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11584425

543 stations have filed for Analog Silent STA's effective Feb 17th. That number represents over 25% of all full power stations in the US.

http://www.rabbitears.info/termlist.php

PBS officials, for example, say it will cost its local stations $22 million to keep pumping out analog signals for another four months. And with the Senate bill allowing stations to go all-digital sooner than June 12 provided they make their analog spectrum available for emergency broadcasting, there are a number of stations that say they won't wait. Perhaps more patient are the struggling broadcast networks, which pushed back February sweeps to March for fear of the audience disruption brought about by the switchover. They favor a June transfer, when their skeds are largely filled with reruns and inexpensive reality shows.http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999367.html?categoryId=1054&cs=1

Are you sure its the U.S. doing this ? Sounds more like an idea Canada would do, delay progress !!

The reality is as much as I hate to see a last minute delay like this because of all the confusion it causes, February was a bad month to choose for the transition for many reasons. First of all, winter weather makes it a bad month for people to be making antenna adjustments if they discover they are necessary. Secondly it is the middle of the broadcast season and people who are unprepared might miss a new episode.

Yeah, summer would make more sense, but then a lot could be hit by lightning..

Yeah, summer would make more sense, but then a lot could be hit by lightning..

True, though it is a lot easier to wait for a lightning storm to pass than for the snow to melt. Lightning storms don't usually last 6 months ;).

I was doing some more reading today and it looks like the date change has not passed yet after all. The Senate has passed it, but Congress is still debating it. As of right now the date is still Feb 17 for everyone. The FCC website and dtv2009.gov are both still counting down to Feb 17th. No wonder many of us are confused. One report will say it's changing and then another the same station will retract the statement on it's next newscast.

I'm getting sick of hearing of poor planning and inadequate funding, however. It's 40 freaking dollars people. Yes I understand that if you have multiple TVs is $40 * the number of TVs, but why not go with the Feb 17th date and offer a mail in rebate program. Tell everyone to go buy their converters, send proof of purchase and if you didn't already get the rebate (i.e. there is no $40 discount on your receipt) they'll send you a cheque. People get their converter boxes, the switchover goes ahead as planned and they create jobs (temporary as they will be) to process the rebates. Win-Win-more temporary Win.

There's one potential "catch-22" gotcha that may screw some US stations wishing to shut down on the 17th. It goes like so... to shut down analogue before the scheduled cut-off date, a station has to give 30 days notice (e.g. Willmington and Hawaii). If a station planned to shut down analogue on the federally-mandated analogue-shutdown date, no filing was required from the station.

So along comes Congress and, on Feb 5th or 6th, moves the goalposts to June 12th. A station that was planning to shut down analogue on Feb 17th would not have filed 30-day notice. Technically, it would now be required to file 30 days notice to shut down before June 12.

So the president signs the bill and the stations grab ahold of the forms. They probably won't be able to get them filled out and filed before the weekend. A 30-day filing on Monday Feb 9th is 30 days before Wednesday March 11. This seems like a technical reporting requirement. Hopefully the FCC will waive the 30-day rule for stations planning to shut down on Feb 17th. Any word on this?

Walter Dnes, I am pretty sure this legislation they are trying to pass says in it that stations have the option to stick with the Feb 17th deadline if they apply to do so. Hence, that 30 day waiver would then be null for this purpose. Yet, if a station didn't apply to shutdown on Feb 17 but wanted to do so before June 12th, I would think they would then have to apply for the 30 day waiver.

The bigger issue, with stations not all shutting down on the exact same date, is in the shuffling of frequencies (channels) that must happen for the changeover to be completed.

Some stations are waiting for other stations to vacate frequencies so they can move their own transmitters to them. Those stations are pretty much stuck if the incumbent decides to delay.

-ml

BREAKING NEWS: Congress sends president a bill delaying analog TV shutdown until June 12


Front page of MSNBC.com

The House voted today 264-158 to delay the analog TV shutdown until June 12.

The nation was two weeks away from the original date of Feb. 17 for the digital transition, allowing broadcasters to replace analog TV signals with digital ones.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29003127/

Looks as if the new transition date is now June 12.

Not for the stations in my area, all the U.S. stations are switching on the Feb 17th date. Some stations are waiting for other stations to vacate, some are swapping...some just can't afford to run it (PBS).

They still need FCC approval before flipping the switch.

And there will STILL be a ton of people not ready by the time June 12 rolls around!

They still need FCC approval before flipping the switch.

And there will STILL be a ton of people not ready by the time June 12 rolls around!
You are so right. Anyone in the States who at this point says they didn't know about the cutover watches very little TV and so the change shouldn't matter much to them anyway. The announcements seem to have been continuous for the last six months. Once one delay is allowed (and this is actually the second), it becomes very likely that more delays will happen. This is a very slippery slope to be on.

(CNN) -- American TV viewers have four extra months to get ready for the day their local stations shut down their analog transmitters, thanks to a delay in the digital TV transition approved by Congress Wednesday.

The House, by a vote of 264 to 158, passed a Senate bill that would reset the death of analog TV to June 12, a measure President Barack Obama is expected to sign.

An estimated 6.5 million homes -- including many elderly, poor and disabled Americans -- would lose TV service after February 17 without the delay, supporters argued.

Yeah but like I posted above, it won't affect the Burlington-Plattsburgh stations. They're shutting down on February 17th despite the new law. Makes Congressman Welch and Senators Leahy and Sanders look stupid... they voted to extend the transition but it will have no effect in their home state. "But... you told us you were extending it!" Mouahahaha! :D

nyone in the States who at this point says they didn't know about the cutover watches very little TV and so the change shouldn't matter much to them anyway.

I suspect that most of the folks that are not now ready are waiting for the coupon program to be re-funded. They also need to re-issue coupons that expired unused. I believe the delay was mostly due to a seriously flawed coupon program that ran out of money.

Dave