Posted on 01/26/2009 7:30:26 PM PST by Peace4EarthNow
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Monday voted unanimously to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12 — setting the stage for Congress to pass the proposal as early as Tuesday.
Monday's Senate vote is a big victory for the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, who have been pushing for a delay amid growing concerns that too many Americans won't be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover.
The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.
"Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., author of the bill to push back the deadline. "I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time."
The issue now goes to the House, where Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has vowed to work with House leaders to bring Rockefeller's bill up for a floor vote on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama earlier this month called for the transition date to be postponed after the Commerce Department hit a $1.34 billion funding limit for government coupons that consumers may use to help pay for digital TV converter boxes. The boxes, which generally cost between $40 and $80 each and can be purchased without a coupon, translate digital signals back into analog ones for older TVs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Good, good, good. Now I can put off writing that heartrending letter to my congressman about the choice of either paying my heating bill or buying a converter box.
Obama's constituency is morons. Most likely morons that are glued to a TV 24x7. It's just another opportunity for Obama to buy some more votes with money stolen from taxpayers. He's already campaigning for 2012.
Deadbeat checking in here. Retiree checking in here. It makes me puke that the govt sold the bandwith for profit, something that used to be free and now they are forcing me to put out extra cash just to hear local news. All these companies are rolling in the cash and their pukey CEOs making big bucks buying off the govt. How many coffees at McDonalds do I have to give up to buy this converter box. Hell I think they should give it to retirees FREE.
You know, some time without American Idol and MSM news and people may actually have to think for themselves again and the government can't have that happening. They can't take a chance of a lapse in TV coverage. LOL.
“Why is this happening anyway? Who cares? Why the hell is govt. mandating a change and then spending tax dollars with these coupons to help people with the transition?”
Well so far the government has spent 1.2 billion on coupons. With maybe another 650 million on the way. From what I understand they are selling off the analog air waves for something like 4 billion. I guess they still come out ahead.
This is defined as a great victory for the Democrat’s? Okay...
How about we just put this on hold indefinitely and let the market decide when it will be ready fr this with little harm during the transition.
And which area might that be?
Can’t believe this is being dealyed. But the Gov’t isn’t the smartest people we have.
You have a gift for understatement.
Also, the digital signal is only good for about seventy miles. Depending on terrain (if you're in a valley or behind hills etc) it may be even less than that.
I guess old folks living in rural areas on fixed incomes and can't afford satellite will be screwed.
You're assuming there won't be another extension beyond this one...
Why don’t they delay it forever? The whole thing is just stupid. I can’t wait for the first big emergency post dtv changeover when people can’t get a local TV signal anywhere. Sometimes TV stations broadcast on radio in these circumstances, but it will probably happen suddenly. They should can the whole idea, which came about in an effort to sell a lot of expensive TVs.
I’d say almost all of those 6.5 million households are the dumbest households in the country, and should be forever stripped of the franchise. A few of them are probably among the brightest households, who never give TV a thought.
Will the Senate vote to delay the minimum wage increase, which is coming up July 24th?
It would be the third increase in approximately 2 years.
If we want to increase the number of employed right now, we shouldn’t increase the wages again.
Yup.
Every other commercial is Comcast trying to scare/sucker somebody else in.
You'd have to be a moron to not get out of the way of a Cat 5 hurricane, too. But as we saw during Katrina, there are a lot of morons out there.
Who is paying for all the commercials?
To postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months is not going to help many of the millions of U.S. households that rely on analog television. Analog signals travel further then digital. Meaning if you live over 50 miles from your local station, you may not be able to receive a picture with or with out a converter box. An expensive antenna may help, but much of the country is out of range of over the air digital programming. Many stations have already cut the power on their analog transmission and have cut off many of the same households. That is why in many parts of the country consumers subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.
I wonder how many local TV stations were not ready for the conversion?
The rats don’t want any disruption in the broadcast of their media propaganda..
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