RSSHouse votes to delay DTV transition, President likely to sign
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 4, 2009, 11:19 AM
By a vote of 264 - 158 at 4:12 pm ET, with official time to vote having been closed, it appears Congress has moved to extend the transition date for the DTV transition to June 12.
The final legislative hurdle came at about 3:30, when Rep. Joe Barton (R - Texas) offered a motion to recommit -- a move to have the bill sent back to the Energy and Commerce Committee. There, it would have considered an amendment compelling broadcasters to vacate the VHF/UHF spectrum anyway, if police, fire, or other public safety officials in their broadcast area had expressed plans to use the vacated spectrum for their own purposes.
That measure was swiftly defeated, though not without some very vocal opposition from Rep. Barton and colleague Rep. Greg Walden (R - Ore.). At one point, Walden and other House Republicans invoked the name of R. Gerard Salemme, who sits on the board of directors of WiMAX carrier Clearwire and who also was a member of Pres. Obama's transition team, implying that there may have been a conflict of interest that went uncontested. Salemme, it was alleged, may have advised the then-Pres.-Elect to voice his approval for a DTV transition delay, which Walden and others charged to have been the only issue for which he broke his "one-President-at-a-time" stance.
But the brunt of Republicans' opposition to the delay centered around House Democrats refusal, as symbolized by yesterday's Rules Committee vote, to allow the bill to be debated or amended under ordinary rules. This despite the fact that the one amendment Rep. Barton was willing to attach to his motion to recommit this afternoon, was one that effectively boiled down to, "Please ignore everything this legislation says."
Republicans threw everything they had at the bill, including the notion that if broadcasters are forced to maintain analog and digital signals simultaneously for the next four months, the result would be another 4 million tons of CO2 emissions pumped into the Earth's atmosphere.
In a statement issued moments after the vote was tallied, National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO David Rehr voiced his group's support for the vote, though he indicated broadcasters may still throw the switch anyway: "The legislation passed by Congress provides more time for Americans to prepare for the DTV transition and will allow more time for the government to fix the coupon program. We appreciate members of Congress for their leadership and swift action in ensuring viewers get continued access to free, over-the-air television. America's broadcasters, which have spent the past decade preparing for this historic transition, are ready to make a successful switch."
Later, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell issued this statement: "Today, a majority of the directly elected representatives of the American people, the US Congress, has clearly expressed its desire to postpone the deadline for the cessation of analog full-power television broadcasts to June 12, 2009. I look forward to joining my two colleagues, Acting Chairman Copps and Commissioner Adelstein, in quickly implementing the will of the Congress. I know we will do all that we can to minimize the inevitable disruption and confusion this transition will cause. In the meantime, let's all stay on message: If you need a converter box, get it today and hook it up today and start enjoying the benefits of digital television today."
At one point, Rep. Rick Boucher (D - Va.), leading the debate in favor of delaying the US' transition date to June 12, argued that IBM -- the company in charge of handling coupon requests -- can only handle 1.6 million coupon requests per week, maximum. That's not enough to handle an estimated 6.5 million households that may still need to change their DTV setups prior to the February 17 original hard date.
A live blog of this afternoon's proceedings, with partial transcripts of representatives' comments, follows the jump.
now we can have four more months free of "w-h-i-n-i-n-g"
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|Doesn't Derrecho DeVia Rhyme with Douchbag?
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|The problems with DTV in many cases has nothing do to with the majority of the population. It has to do with a population of people in the Rural Sticks so to speak. These people who barely have VHF signal to begin with, either are being forced to go to a DISH system, which if they are using an antenna lets face it they are the poorest of poor so that isn't happening. Getting cable, which again in many such areas is not available, Or going without. which god forbid Americans have to go without TV!! OMG the world is going to tip on its axis.
Anyways there are places that even now when you hook up a DTV antenna and receiver to a traditional box that at least had fuzzy picture.. guess what you now get with DTV? Yep NOTHING. just a black screen. These are the people that are going to be most effected by this movement and I look forward to seeing the news the day the forced switch happens at all the disenfranchised voters going without, even with the coupons and receivers...
The chief problem I have always had with the whole thing is not the technology, I don't care either way. truth is I barely watch TV at all anymore anyhow, its a waste as there is nothing of quality on anymore. Besides the point. the problem I have is its the PUBLIC airwaves they are selling off. And who is buying. Not really anyone. They (the US Government) are giving it away. So what are taxpayers going to get a break since they no longer have PUBLIC airwaves? No . that will never happen either. Yet the public resource is essentially gone with this little endeavor of theirs.
First DTV transition, then Broadcast flags, then everything becomes subscription based or pay per view, with ZERO consumer fair use rights. Why yep because its digital now and thus covered under DMCA and as such no fir use rights to consumers exist.
Again, VCRs, DVD-R PVRs and all other recorders that are used for time-s***ing and personal archiving, will once again become illegal in this country. Thus the industry succeeds in sidestepping Betamax ruling after years of trying and failing to get it reversed.
So Again I say, Where is the public's interest in this? really... There is none; and that here in has ALWAYS been the problem.
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|Face it! Why not just say what you are really feeling? Just admit, and say after me ... "I have low self-esteem evidenced by the fact that I voted for Bush 'twice', and therefor I can brag that I have digital TV (or TV at all) and you don't." That's the truth, isn't it? You spent money to get something fancy, and when you heard that everyone might have digital (although that is false), your low self-esteem got even lower.
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|Wow, you show such emotional control over yourself, I'm shocked.
Fact, all of the US will loose analog TV signals.
Fact, If you didn't get a converter or a TV with a digital tuner, you will only get static.
Fact, TV shows have been bombarded with commercials and tickertape warnings about the change for almost a year.
Fact, it's going to happen, so don't wait & have your TV or converter on back order for weeks & miss all of your shows.
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|"Fact, it's going to happen, so don't wait & have your TV or converter on back order for weeks & miss all of your shows."
And what a calamity that would be! Oh no! I missed a week of House!
It's TV for Christ's sake.
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|Sorry Dreck Dumbfxxk, it was Bill Clinton who signed the forced transition to digital TV on February 8, 1996 when he signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
And to continue the tradition of moving forward:
"President Obama is continuing to fill the senior ranks of the U.S. Department of Justice with the copyright industry's favorite lawyers.
Donald Verrilli announced Wednesday that he had been named associate deputy attorney general. Verrilli is the lawyer who pulled the plug on Grokster, sued Google on behalf of Viacom, and represented the Recording Industry Association of America against a Minnesota woman named Jammie Thomas who's accused of illicit file sharing.
This follows a string of other pro-copyright industry picks that Obama has made. Last month, there was Obama's selection last month of a top RIAA lawyer--currently squaring off in court with Harvard University's Berkman Center--to be third-in-command at the Justice Department.
Donald Verrilli, the lawyer who pulled the plug on Grokster
(Credit: jenner.com)Vice President Joe Biden has long been an ally of the recording industry, urging the criminal prosecutions of copyright-infringing peer-to-peer users and trying to create a new federal felony involving playing unauthorized music. And another senior Justice Department post has gone to the top antipiracy enforcer for the Business Software Alliance, a strong supporter of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention rules.
Obama's latest choice, Verrilli, is a senior litigator in the Washington, D.C. offices of the Jenner & Block law firm.
In technology circles, he's probably best known for arguing the Minnesota case called Capitol v. Thomas. In that case, the RIAA convinced the judge to accept jury instructions saying that the "making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network" violated the law, even if none had actually been transferred.
Verrilli won the first round, with a federal jury saying in October 2007 that Thomas had to pay $220,000. But then the judge threw out the verdict, concluding the jury instructions he approved were misleading; the RIAA is hoping to hold on to the initial verdict and is currently appealing.
One reason why this case is especially relevant to Verrilli's new job is that the Justice Department intervened in the Thomas case on behalf of the RIAA."
http://news.cnet.com/the...d=digital-TV+transition
Change? LOL!
Gotta love(sic) it!
Now sit down, clueless.
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|If Congress could have delayed Y2K, we would still be working on Y2K fixes.
I can not help seeing this DTV delay as one that will inevitably be followed by another, and another. I hope I am wrong.
And, regarding the coupons - what an idiotic program! Why JUST converter boxes? Why not let people put the $40 toward a new DTV-capable TV also, should they choose? I have seen smaller LCD TVs - full 1080p - for $300; and, forty is a rather decent percentage-off that.
I also can not help thinking that there are *probably* some massive government-DTV-Coupon-cashing scams going on. I can almost bet we will someday hear about how much the taxpayers got ripped off by this coupon program. And, these coupons have done nothing but SET the price of a converter at $40, essentially, when had the market just set prices based on how many were produced and how cheap the circuitry is in them, these things would have been selling for $10-20 instead. So much for "free markets".
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|Idoit! Y2K had only to do with programers who didn't knowhow to use 4 digit years and IBM boxes, which had almost no effect, and ANYONE with any brains knew this was nothing to panic about. The transition is completely different,
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|Oh, and what the F*** did congress have to do with Y2K? IDIOT. This was machine, not legislative. Quit wasting valuable bandwidth your your ignorant remarks.
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|Congress created a Y2K: Energy Policy Act in 2005, which almost certainly caused more energy use/manhours to implement than it will ever save.
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|You've all seen the cons against this big business transition being shoved down our throats, and yet you close your ears. Why do you idiots even pay attention to congress or these forums -- you can't understand them. You can't comprehend them ? Oh, well, hack 'n track, WE ARE SICK OF YOU!
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|F*** you all. I've been reading your selfish remarks for weeks. $15 w/o coupon? LIAR! You have no concept except "I got mine too bad for you." Well ... now it's time for hack 'n track. Think I'm joking?
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|What the heck are you on about?
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|Idiots! The people who haven't changed to get with the program will undoubtedly still not be ready with an extension. They are procrastinators and the only way to fix it is to force them to change. The wimpy government though decides to give them more time. Sigh.
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|If people haven't gotten themselves ready for this change, it's their own fault.
In all areas of life there are procrastinators. People wait till the last minute for all types of things & this is just another one to add to the list. What about all those ticker tapes at the bottom of the TV screen about the digital change, Didn't they see and read it? What a bunch of idiots.
I say go ahead & change to digital & let the slow poke procrastinators run to the store & get what they need. So what if they haven't gotten a coupon yet, it's a government program so what should they expect to happen? Get it in time? It's not going happen.
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|Ugh. It's like watching what will inevitably happen in the UK before it does.
Congratulations on making the new date non-mandatory. That'll really help with the supposed 'confusion'.
Bunch of inept idiots, the lot of them.
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|Entire state of Hawaii laughs at mainland, I'm thinking.
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|This is a joke. Who in the country the last year or so didn't know this switch was coming.
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|The stations that change before June 12 are going to really feel the brunt of consumer outrage. It will, however, focus the attention where it should be, on the ill-designed and poorly implemented system. Perhaps between the two deadlines, the areas where coverage problems are large can be adjusted by either the increase of radiated power or repeater nodes.
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|"The stations that change before June 12 are going to really feel the brunt of consumer outrage"
You mean all of the two elderly people that don't have cable or satellite? How many people do you believe really use broadcast TV? I know of one person and that, sadly, is my mother. She hates Time Warner and the Satellite companies are all scams, so she uses the old "rabbit ears" but she got a box last year. It only cost her $10 from a Wal-Mart with that $40 off coupon.
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|If she has no problems right now, she must live in an area not too far from the transmitters (good signal strength), but not too close to sources of multipath problems (can completely obliterate picture even with excellent signal strength). In some areas of the country, places like that aren't easily found.
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|She is over 30 miles from the towers, in Cincinnati and 50 miles form the towers in Dayton, Ohio, and can get most of the stations in without a problem.
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|Some of those problems may change since not all DTV stations are broadcasting at full power and when they turn off the analog some of the interference will go away.
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|*!&(@$(*!@&$&%*()!@#
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|How typical of Congress--blaming big business (IBM) for their own failures.
I also agree this is the ultimate waste of time and money.
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|Big silliness is that it's not a requirement. so this may confuse people. Feb 17th is going to happen for many networks. No matter what the deadline is to be converted.
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|This....is the single most retarded waste of time I've seen in a LONG time.
If this is how everything in our gov't. works....I'm suprized that we're even still on this planet.
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|No! The biggest waste of time and money was the whole transition. What the F*** are the analog frequencies going for anyway? If you say public safety, go back to playing your Iraq war video games and keep convincing your self hat you are somebody while you hid in your apartments while buried in your HD an 5.1 Dolby.
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|There is a portion that is going to be given to the first responders. Then there were 4 other blocks that were auctioned off to the highest bidder. I know Verizon and Cox got some of it. I don't remember who got the rest.
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|Geeze....more time to waste taxpayer money on $40 coupons for a device that would cost $15 if there were no coupons.
My local stations have already announced that they are switching on Feb. 17 regardless. Props to them.
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