After a political hiccup, the mandatory switchover to all-digital TV broadcasts in the United States will now be delayed until June 12. Both houses of Congress have backed legislation to authorise the delay and Barack Obama has already indicated he will sign the bill into law.

The House of Representatives had previously failed to back the bill when, although a majority voted in favor, the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority under a special procedure designed to pass legislation quickly.

On this occasion the vote was 264-158, meaning just three politicians were persuaded to change their minds from the original vote. Fortunately for supporters this vote came under the usual rules and a simple majority was sufficient.

The debate before the vote ran along the same lines as previous arguments. Those in favour argued that delays to a scheme to give $40 coupons towards the cost of digital set-top boxes meant many risked losing TV signals if they couldn’t afford to switch over. Those against argued that there will always be people who aren’t ready for the switchover no matter when the deadline is.

In a creative piece of lobbying, House speaker Nancy Pelosi handed out a list showing the number of people still on the coupon waiting list in each member’s Congressional district. For some politicians this figure reached as high as 8,000; even with elections almost two years away, that’s a lot of voters to risk upsetting with blank screens.

The Federal Communications Commission will meet today to discuss the logistics of allowing stations to voluntarily switch to digital-only signals before the deadline. Michael J Copps (pictured) said “It has long been clear to me–and it’s even clearer since I became Acting FCC Chairman two weeks ago–that the country is not prepared to undertake a nationwide transition in twelve days without unacceptably high consumer dislocation.”

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Entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 10:03 am under Politics, Technology.

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