DTV Delay Receives Mixed Reactions
The U.S. House of Representatives' vote Wednesday to delay a national transition from analog to digital television until June may cause a shortage in digital converter boxes and will delay some new wireless services aimed at consumers, some critics said.
Many makers of digital converter boxes have stopped production in anticipation of the original Feb. 17 transition date, said Megan Pollock, spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). An extension until June 12, now approved by both the U.S. House and Senate, could drive demand for converters from customers who don't need them, and some manufacturers may need up to 24 weeks to fire back up their production lines, she said.
The House and Senate voted to delay the transition after reports that millions of U.S. homes aren't ready for the switch. Nielsen, the TV survey company, said in mid-January that 6.5 million homes, nearly 6 percent of homes in the U.S., didn't have the converter boxes necessary to receive digital broadcasts. Older TV sets that receive broadcasts over the air would need converter boxes to continue getting a TV signal; customers of cable and satellite TV service do not.
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