Congress aims to warn TV shoppers
Is that slick new television you've been eyeing equipped to move seamlessly through the impending switchover from analog to all-digital broadcasts in February 2009?
A new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is designed to alert anyone who still isn't sure. Under the Republican-sponsored Digital Television Consumer Education Act introduced earlier this week, all retailers would be required to display "conspicuous" signs near any analog-only TVs--or, in the case of mail-order and online shops, near advertisements or descriptions of such TV sets.
That warning would have to include the following: "This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. The TV should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products."
The practical effects of the signage aren't entirely clear. The Federal Communications Commission has already decreed that by March 2007, all TVs and other devices designed to receive broadcast TV signals must contain built-in digital tuners. It has also already required that of TVs with 36-inch screens or larger (since July 2005) and TVs with 25- to 36-inch screens (since March 2006).
Congress rushed to enact the transition deadline in the last session after reports that scarce radio spectrum harmed the communications efforts of emergency personnel working during Hurricane Katrina (similar complaints were lodged after the Sept. 11 attacks). By bumping analog channels off the TV band, the government plans to set aside a certain amount of spectrum for emergency workers and to auction off the rest.
High-tech companies are eager to snap up portions of the 700MHz frequency band because it allows signals to travel farther and straighter than on bands typically used by the wireless and electronics industries today. Some say that could lead to easier and cheaper roll-out of broadband networks.
The digital TV education bill, chiefly sponsored by Republicans Joe Barton, Fred Upton, and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, also calls for federal regulators to establish a public outreach program, devise energy standards for set-top converter boxes, and make progress reports to Congress on its consumer education efforts.
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