TV's New Date With Destiny

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will vote on whether the transition to digital broadcast television will be delayed, setting off a new scramble by broadcasters to adjust to a changing DTV switch deadline. After a political back-and-forth that kept station managers off-balance for two weeks, June 12 is the new date for the digital switch. Legislators have said a delay from the original Feb. 17 deadline could cost individual stations up to $1 million in additional utility and lease costs. Whether or not the delay is enacted this week, the National Association of Broadcasters is ready to deploy new public-service messages telling the public about the delay. TV stations that have been preparing contingency plans since President Barack Obama indicated last month that he wanted a delay are deciding whether to go ahead and switch to digital or wait until June. The FCC said that of the nation's 1,800 or so TV stations, 133 have terminated their analog signals already, another 67 will terminate their signals before Feb. 17 and 93 have told the agency they will terminate their signal on Feb. 17. That means no matter what Congress does, about 16% of the nation's TV stations will have switched by Feb. 17.