ALSEA 12/19/2005 - The House passed a "compromise" Digital Television hard date shut off bill this morning as part of the omnibus budget reconciliation package.

The new bill sets the date for ending all analog television services as being February 17, 2009 (the Senate Commerce Committee had set April 7, 2009, the House Commerce Committee Dec. 31, 2008).

January 28, 2008 is the new date for auctioning of the analog spectrum to new suitors.

A paltry $5 million was set aside for a consumer awareness campaign. We can all have a good laugh over that! New York gets $30 million to help terrestrial broadcasters recover from the World Trade Center towers that were lost in the 9/11 attack.

The much anticipated subsidy for DTV-to-analog converter boxes is pegged at $1.5 billion. According to Broadcasting and Cable the Senate Commerce had set aside $3 billion, the House only a little under a $1 billion.

Of particular importance to the National Association of Broadcasters was the stripping out of the bill's provision that would have permitted cable operators to down-convert HDTV signals into a "standard definition" signal. That had been a serious bone of contention between the two rivals. The NAB's new president and CEO, David Rehr said, "We are especially encouraged that the legislation thwarts the cable industry's desire to degrade delivery of HDTV pictures to consumers. We strongly urge Senate adoption of this legislation."

See stories below for more details:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6292482.html?display=Breaking+News

http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3571851

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051219-5801.html

The Senate's passage of this bill (expected to be signed by the president prior to year's end) will set in motion a new march which will lead all to a cross industry climax on February 17, 2009 (more on this later). From this point on the message to the nation needs to be simplified until all are acting under the same promotional slogan. Without a question there remains a major educational effort ahead of us if the subsidy program is to be effective. The passage of this bill will tend to move all elements of the industry forward at the same time so I urge all players to take advantage of this tail wind and now promote H/DTV at every opportunity _Dale Cripps, Pioneer in H/DTV