NEW YORK—Proponents urging a delay of the nationwide transition to full digital TV broadcasting heaved a sigh of relief as the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the delay until June 12th.
Incoming President Barack Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives have already indicated that they approved the delay, which results in the likelihood that the delay will be completely approved this week by the House as well.
The switch was originally scheduled to set in on February 17th and would have affected millions of Americans across the country who are still using analog TV sets to watch TV over antennas. Even though the government has given rebates and urged people to upgrade their sets or at least install a convertor that would allow digital signals to be converted to analog, there are still a large number of Americans who are not ready for the switch yet.
Neilson, the company that rates television shows, estimated that at least 6 million Americans would have been left out of the switch to digital broadcasting. That number might be significantly larger since Neilson can only measure numbers based on its sampling.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the use of the wireless spectrum, had auctioned off the older 700-MHz spectrum, which had earlier been used for analog broadcasting. The spectrum was deemed ready to be vacated, since most TV audiences had transitioned to cable or satellite to receive their channels. The spectrum is now owned largely by cellular giants AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Incoming President Barack Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives have already indicated that they approved the delay, which results in the likelihood that the delay will be completely approved this week by the House as well.
The switch was originally scheduled to set in on February 17th and would have affected millions of Americans across the country who are still using analog TV sets to watch TV over antennas. Even though the government has given rebates and urged people to upgrade their sets or at least install a convertor that would allow digital signals to be converted to analog, there are still a large number of Americans who are not ready for the switch yet.
Neilson, the company that rates television shows, estimated that at least 6 million Americans would have been left out of the switch to digital broadcasting. That number might be significantly larger since Neilson can only measure numbers based on its sampling.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the use of the wireless spectrum, had auctioned off the older 700-MHz spectrum, which had earlier been used for analog broadcasting. The spectrum was deemed ready to be vacated, since most TV audiences had transitioned to cable or satellite to receive their channels. The spectrum is now owned largely by cellular giants AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
