(Host) Vermont television viewers are gearing up to go digital next month. Lawmakers tried to give viewers a few more months to get ready, but the bill failed today in the House.
Sara Sciammacco has more from Washington.
(Sciammacco) The February 17th date stands as of now. All television viewers who get a signal over rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna will be affected by the transition. Customers will have to buy a converter box or a new TV. Analog signals will no longer be allowed. Senator Bernie Sanders says a lot of Vermonters will be unhappy.
(Sanders) "The concern is that there may be thousands of people in our state because of the nature of our terrain who as a result of the transition may have fewer channels or no channels at all."
(Sciammacco) Other households will go black because some owners can’t afford the switch. Congressman Peter Welch says there are also those Vermonters who just don’t know about it.
(Welch) "People are going about their lives getting their kids to school paying the bills so they do not know this is coming many Vermonters particularly older Vermonters depend on TV as a lifeline. It is their friend the programs are important to them. It is where they get their news and they are in danger of falling off the digital cliff."
(Sciammacco) And in the event of a tragedy, lawmakers say no signal could pose a public safety risk. The Senate reached a bipartisan agreement to delay the transition to June. The bill would have allowed stations to make the switch earlier if they wanted to, but it failed in the House. Welch says the delay would have given viewers more time to prepare.
(Welch) "The whole discussion about this delay has focused the attention of a lot people because now they are getting the sense that this is real and it is not an abstract conversation."
(Sciammacco) Welch says the delay would have also given the government more time to help people upgrade. Officials gave out forty dollar coupons to buy converter boxes, but ran out. Congress this week is expected to include six hundred and fifty million dollars in a stimulus package to continue the program. Randy Forbes, a republican congressman from Virginia, opposed the delay.
(Forbes) "I think the key thing is making sure that we have enough money in there to pay for the coupons that people have requested and I think that is very doable so I think we have a great opportunity to go ahead and make it happen when it was projected to happen in the first place."
(Sciammacco) Other opponents say the delay would have created more confusion for viewers. All of the government’s education efforts have targeted the February transition date. West Virginia Republican Congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito says no matter when the switch happens confusion is inevitable.
(Capito) "I still think there is going to be glitches unfortunately snafus people are going to have problems. I don’t see that an extra three months is going to avoid that, I really don’t."
(Sciammacco) Hawaii and Wilmington, North Carolina have already made the transition. The bill failed to get a two-thirds vote in the House, but leadership plans to bring up the bill again next week and expects it to pass. Broadcasters say the digital technologywill be more efficient and give viewers more choices.
From Capitol News Connection I’m Sara Sciammacco for VPR News.
Photo: A television set installed with a digital converter box, produced a superior image when compared to the analog version of the same channel in this photo. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)