title: Congress Clashes Over Digital TV Conversion Deadline
written by: Naitze Teng
date: October 27, 2005

The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation last week requiring television stations to switch their broadcasts from analog to digital by April 7, 2009. Current law stipulates that the transition be made by December 31, 2006 or once 85 percent of households have adopted digital television, whichever comes later. While the April 2009 deadline seems to delay the move to digital, the New York Times reports that less than half of homes now actually have digital signals so it could force the transition to happen sooner.

Still others are pushing for the conversion to happen even sooner given recent national disasters like Katrina and 9-11. Senator John McCain wants the conversion to happen by 2007, thereby freeing the analog spectrum for emergency officials. Of course television manufacturers would also like to see a closer deadline in order to drive sales up. The House Energy and Commerce Committee for one just approved a measure that goes against the Senate Committee’s decision, requiring television stations to end analog broadcasts by December 31, 2008.

For any advancement to take place, House and Senate need to resolve their differences. Both agree that not enough households have adopted digital television so far, but present very different solutions. The Senate bill proposes making three billion dollars in subsidies available to consumers purchasing conversion boxes to make their analog sets useable. The House sets aside substantially less for the same purpose; only $990 million which deterrents say just isn’t enough considering even households that currently have one digital television might also have multiple analog sets.

Pushing back the transition date just delays the inevitable. If given more time odds are lagging consumers will sit on it – they need a more pressing reason like losing the ability to watch television to compel them to get a new set.


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