Senate Passes Modified DTV Delay Bill

February 4, 2009

By Mike Peters

Following the House of Representatives voting down Senator John D. Rockefeller IV’s original bill to delay the DTV transition deadline, the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed an amended bill that will go back to the House for approval.

Amended DTV Delay Bill Heads Back to the House of Representatives for Approval

Senator Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), the Senate Commerce Committee chairman, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) rewrote the bill to include modifications suggested by the House. The new bill will allow television stations who are ready to make the DTV switch to do so anytime between February 17 and June 12.

DTV Transition Delay Called for by President Obama, FCC, and Congress

The main concern driving the requests for a delay in the DTV transition – requests from members of Congress, FCC Commissioners, and President Obama – is that millions of elderly, minority, rural, and disabled viewers are not prepared for the transition and may lose their television signals completely when the switch takes place. A recent Nielsen report estimates the number of households not ready for the transition at 6.5 million. The majority of at-risk viewers have older analog TV sets and do not subscribe to a pay television provider such as cable or satellite. These viewers must either subscribe to a provider, buy a newer digital television, or install a converter box on their set in order to continue receiving television signals after the transition.

DTV Delay Bill Addresses Millions of At-Risk Households

The delay in the DTV deadline will enable the FCC to focus on reaching at-risk households and also to shore up the sagging converter box coupon program which recently ran out of funds and put more than 2.5 million people without coupons – or holding expired coupons – on a waiting list.