The digital transition set to occur on February 17, mere weeks away, is still up in the air at this point. Despite the fact that the majority of American viewers are ready for the digital transition, the Senate and the White House are prepared to postpone the transition until June 12.
The reason for postponing the digital transition according to the Whitehouse and the Senate is to allow more time for the estimated 20 million homes in America -- which are mostly poor, minority or elderly homes -- to prepare for the transition.
Supporters of the delay point out that the coupon program designed by the federal government to offset the cost of the converters by paying $40 of the cost has ran out of fund despite the massive waiting list of people needing coupons.
Those in Washington who are opposed to the delay cite the massive amount of money that many TV stations have invested in preparing to go to all digital broadcasts and the amount of money if could cost the stations around the country to delay the transition.
Despite the opposition to delaying the digital transition, the Senate unanimously voted to delay the digital transition until June 12 2009 in January. The bill was then sent to the House where it was not approved. The Senate reworked the bill to include modified voting procedures that only require a majority vote rather than a 2/3 vote to approve the bill.
The White House has said that it now anticipates that the House will pass the bill to delay the transition. With all the drama surrounding the postponing of the transition date, it is easy to forget why Congress wanted broadcasters to move to digital broadcasts. The reason was to vacate the spectrum used for analog broadcasts to make room for new public and commercial services.
The bidding for the vacated spectrum reached massive levels with AT&T and Verizon coming out as the big winners. AT&T spent $6.6 billion on a big chunk of the spectrum and Verizon spent $9.5 billion on the largest chunk of the vacated spectrum. Both of the wireless companies have agreed to the delay in the digital transition until June 12.
However, Qualcomm won the bidding for a smaller chunk of the vacated spectrum in the 700MHz range that carries Channel 55 TV signals. The company spent $550 million on the spectrum and set about plans to use the spectrum for mobile TV channels. Qualcomm says that it will offer 15 mobile TV channels on the spectrum and has things in place to flip the switch and launch its FLO TV service on February 18, the day after the original deadline for the digital transition.
Unlike Verizon and AT&T, Qualcomm is not onboard with delaying the transition until June 12. Much of the reason Qualcomm doesn't want to delay the transition comes down to one of money. The company needs the FLO TV service to launch and be successful. The firm reported a 56% drop in Q1 profits recently and says that delaying its DTV launch would cost it millions and possibly the lucrative first entry into the mobile TV market.
Qualcomm spokesperson Christine Trimble said in a statement, "We are very disappointed with the passage of legislation in the Senate. As the House considers legislation, we are continuing to request that the legislation retain the February 17th date for nine TV stations in four markets—Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco."
Qualcomm's dissatisfaction with postponing the transition has had no effect on the plans to postpone the deadline for the transition.