The delay to digital tv

Today on the hill Michael J. Copps, Chairman of Federal Communications Commission (FCC), spoke about the delay in digital television transition until June 2009. He said that the FCC-team are doing their best at the moment to prepare America for the future transition.

This was said at a hearing held by the Communications, Technology and Internet Subcommittee with participants such as Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Anna Gomez, Acting Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information U.S. Department of Commerce.

Copps explained that to help America make the transition, a lesson from the past has to be learn. He said that that is the reason that the FCC-team now focuses much more on customer education, since it presented past problems.

Stearns discussed the digital transition in many states and that it had been implemented successfully. He said that five percent of the Americans were not able to make the transition and suggested that a solution would be to help only these five percent. In that way, the rest of the money invested in the FCC program could be repaid and cost efficiency would occur, said Stearns.

Gomez responded that money that is not being used in making the transition easier will be repaid. Gomez also stated that the extending of the transition was necessary and that America will be much more prepared for it in June. Gomez said, “Working together we can get the Digital Television Transition right. The American people deserve nothing less."

Members of Congress talk about digital TV transition

The House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology held a hearing concerning “The DTV Transition and Small Business: Small Firms Contributing to a Big Change.” Committee members spoke with cable company leaders in small communities to better understand the effect that the transition to digital television will have on their respective societies.

Chairman Bruce Braley (D-IA) focused his questioning on the implications the transition will have on small business, and was assured by panel members such as Jack Dempsey, the President and General Manager of WJHL- TV/ News Channel 11 of Johnson City, TN that the public will be well informed enough to make the transition smooth and affordable.

Some panel members, particularly Ed Pardini of Mediacom Communications in Des Moines, IA cautioned that the transition might hurt competition between local cable markets, and would hurt people having too little money to afford the new technology. Dempsey noted that companies such as his were focused particularly on informing and assisting the elderly, poor, and people in rural areas about the transition.