JP
You’ve probably heard about the looming switch from analog television signals to all-digital signals. At the end of the broadcast day on February 17, televison stations will stop broadcasting their analog signals. Or will they? Barack Obama is calling for an extension to the February 17 deadline. More after the jump.
The President-elect is backing a digital TV delaydue to recent news from the National Telecommunications and Information Adminsitration (NTIA) that the entity is running out of money for analog TV convertor vouchers. That means that, when the February 17 deadline hits, there may be a large number of people who applied for convertor vouchers and never received them.
Obama isn’t alone in his support – he also has Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-VA) and Amy Klobuchar (MN) backing a delay, as well. We’ll find out in the next few weeks whether or not the transition will be delayed, but for now, the switch is on as planned. At the end of the day on February 17, if nothing changes, 1,700 telelvision stations will shut down their analog signals for good.
[via Ars Technica]
