Hill Lawmakers Want DTV Czar
Key Congressmen Urge Bush To Create Transition Task Force Led By Martin
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 2/12/2008 11:33:00 AM MT
Washington – Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and House Energy and Commerce Committee John Dingell (D-Mich.) sent President Bush a letter asking him to create a digital TV transition task force headed by Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin.
“A coordinated federal effort to oversee the transition is essential,” the lawmakers said in a letter dated Feb. 8. Both lawmakers fear too many consumers are ill-informed about the most important shift in broadcast TV since the introduction of color pictures decades ago.
The DTV transition ends on Feb. 17, 2009. Millions of consumers could lose TV service if their legacy analog TV sets are not connected to cable, satellite TV or a digital-to-analog converter box.
“Currently, there are 19.6 million U.S. households that receive over-the-air, broadcast-only signals, equating to 17% of total U.S. households,” National Association of Broadcasters president David Rehr plans to tell a House subcommittee Wednesday.
More than 50% of U.S. homes have purchased a digital TV set, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. But it is not clear how many broadcast-only homes have purchased DTV sets with built-in digital receivers.
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