nerdhook

The enlightened folks who serve in the US Senate have decided, with the blessing of the President himself, to delay the full switchover to digital TV here in the United States to June, instead of February 17th. The legislation is being drafted by John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia:

“The shameful truth is that we are not poised to do this transition right,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “We are only weeks away from doing it dreadfully wrong — and leaving consumers with the consequences.”

Certainly the manner in which digital converter box vouchers were made available has, at best, been handled poorly. But exactly how is a 4 month delay going to solve any of those issues? Will the government begin directly handing out free boxes instead of vouchers? Will the people who have not taken action up to this point be spurred on by their 4 month reprieve?

The bill would allow broadcasters to turn off analog signals before the June 12 deadline, and public safety agencies would be allowed to use those airwaves as soon as they are available. The bill would also allow consumers with expired coupons to re-apply for new ones.

So here’s the bottom line: consumers will have been bombarded with advertisements and publicity warning them about the switch to digital in February. Then mysteriously, that won’t happen en masse as promised. Instead, we will subsequently be bombarded with advertisements and publicity warning about the June switchover. However, some stations might start switching over sooner than that, it’s up to them.

Yes, this approach certainly seems as though it will clear up any lingering confusion. Nicely done.

UPDATE – The House of Representatives defeated the bill yesterday by a 258-168 vote (this bill needed two-thirds support to pass). Congratulations sanity. It is possible another bill requiring only majority support will be introduced next week; let us all hope not.