U.S. TV all digital by 2009

The U.S. Congress has approved a law that will see all television broadcasts converted to digital by Feb. 17, 2009.

The date was a compromise between competing dates proposed by the House and the Senate. It falls after the January 2009 SuperBowl, but before the popular March college basketball playoffs.

The House and Senate also compromised on funding to help consumers with older, analogue TV sets buy converter boxes so they can get digital service.

The Senate had allocated $3 billion US ($3.5 billion). The final allocation approved by Congress is $1.5 billion US.

There are an estimated 21 million households in the U.S. that still rely on free, over-the-air television.

Under this measure, they will be able to apply for up to two $40 US coupons to cover part of the cost of a converter box so they can continue to pull in a signal.

Consumers Union, the consumer watchdog that publishes Consumer Reports, says the legislation will force consumers to spend more than $3.5 billion on new technology.

"The consumer compensation program established in this program is unworkable, unfair, and unacceptable to consumers," said Jeannine Kenney of Consumers Union. "It provides only a fraction of the funds needed to compensate consumers for the costs of a digital transition they never asked for."

The law passed Monday evening also permits cable and satellite providers to convert digital broadcasts back into an analogue format for their customers.

The U.S. already had a law requiring stations to switch to airing only digital broadcasts when 85 per cent of the country could receive the new signals, or by Dec. 31, 2006, whichever came later. Experts have said that could take a long time, prompting lawmakers to seek a more certain date.

Congress plans to sell the spectrum bandwidth given up by the broadcasters. It has earmarked almost $7.4 billion US of the likely proceeds to go toward deficit reduction.

Some of the airwaves will be allocated to emergency services.
 
© CBC News