Audio Video News

Committees in the House and Senate have both agreed that 2009 is to be the year that analog broadcasts end in the US, but many details, including the exact date of the inevitable transition to DTV, aren’t yet resolved.

Among the sticking points are the amount of money for subsidies for set-top converter boxes that people without digital televisions will need in order to continue receiving broadcast signals, and the actual date of the transition. The Senate plan covers $3 billion in consumer subsidies for set-top converters, but the House plan only calls for $1 billion. While lawmakers in the House prefer a January 1st, 2009 switch to exclusive digital broadcasts, Senators favor delaying the transition until April 7, 2009 so that the Christmas holidays, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, and NCAA men's basketball tournament and finals will have passed prior to the transition.

As reported in an earlier UAV news story, Senator John McCain had been pushing for a transition in 2007. In the wake of response issues related to hurricane Katrina, he argued that the analog spectrum currently occupied by TV broadcasters was needed as soon as possible for emergency responders. But his amendment to move up the date was defeated.

Previously, the transition to digital broadcasts was tied to an 85% threshold- that is, the date for the transition could be extended seemingly indefinitely until 85% of households are deemed capable of receiving the digital signals with an integrated DTV or a set-top converter box. The difficulties during the response to Katrina, not to mention the estimated $10 billion to $30 billion the Federal government expects to take in from auctioning off the analog spectrum, prompted Congress to impose a "hard date" for the transition.