US senate earmarks $1bl to help analogue switch off

net1

A Senate committee is set to vote this week on legislation that would require broadcasters to abandon their current analogue TV channels and switch solely to digital transmissions by 2009. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the bill, sponsored by the panel's chairman, Senator John McCain. Included in the paper is language that would authorise the government to spend as much as $1 billion to purchase digital-to-analogue set-top converter boxes for people who can't afford to pay for converters or digital TVs, according to local reports. Current law allows broadcasters to continue transmitting on their analogue frequencies until 85 per cent of the TV-watching public can view digital television.

Public policy officials, including FCC chairman Michael Powell, argue that it will take decades to reach the 85 per cent threshold, preventing those frequencies from being used for new services like wireless broadband and making public safety operations more difficult.

Broadcasters oppose the legislation, which is designed to speed up the transition to digital TV and free up the frequencies broadcasters use now. Those frequencies would then be auctioned off or reserved for public safety use. About 17 million to 18 million Americans, or 15 per cent of the population, still rely on over-the-air transmissions to receive television programming.

Under the bill, it would be illegal to sell an analogue-only TV set that did not carry a label warning consumers that the set will cease to work on December 31 2008.