Bucking the Obama administration, House Republicans on Wednesday defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting to June 12 – leaving the current Feb. 17 deadline intact for now.
The 258-168 vote failed to clear the two-thirds threshold needed for passage. It’s a victory for the GOP members, who warn that postponing the transition would confuse consumers.
The House Republicans say a delay also would burden wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting for the spectrum that will be vacated by the switchover, and create added costs for television stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals for four more months.
The defeat is a setback for the administration of President Barack Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who fear too many Americans won’t be ready for next month’s analog shut-off.
The Nielsen Co. estimates more than 6.5 mi llion U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals still are not prepared for the transition. People who subscribe to cable or satellite TV or have a newer TV with a digital tuner will not be affected.
“In my opinion, we could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date,” said Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Commerce Committee. “The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.”
Barton led the push to scuttle the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously on Monday night.
The Obama administration had no immediate comment on the House vote.
The bill was defeated even after President-elect Barack Obama had urged lawmakers to postpone the Feb. 17 transition amid mounting concerns that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up broadcast channels won’t be ready. Obama called for a delay largely because the federal program that subsidizes converter boxes for those viewers hit a $1.34 billion funding limit this month.
But some Senate Republicans fear a delay would confuse people and burden public safety agencies waiting for wireless spectrum that will be freed up by the switchover. The opponents also said a delay would be costly for television broadcasters that have spent several years preparing for the analog shutoff.
Some Republicans also say they do not want to push back the transition date until Congress comes up with a plan to fix the coupon program. It was not immediately clear which Republicans blocked the bill on Friday.
The coupon program allows consumers to request up to two $40 vouchers per household to help pay for converter boxes. The boxes, which generally cost between $50 and $70 each and can be purchased without a coupon, translate digital signals back into analog ones for older TVs to handle.
But the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department administering the program, is now sending out new coupons only as older, unredeemed ones reach a 90-day expiration date and free up more money for the program. The NTIA had more than 2.1 million coupon requests on a waiting list as of Wednesday.
Now many Washington lawmakers and policymakers fear that even if the agency could begin sending out new coupons immediately, many consumers would not receive them in time for the Feb. 17 switchover.
“We risk leaving those who are most reliant on over-the-air broadcast television for their information literally in the dark,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller, D-W.V., author of the Senate bill calling for the delay to June 12.
Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal policy at Consumers Union, fears that as many as 10 million households that depend on over-the-air television may not be taken care of unless Congress finds another $500 million to $1 billion for the converter box program. He argues that the government has an obligation to approve this money since it has raised roughly $19 billion by auctioning off spectrum due to be freed by the analog TV shutdown.
The digital TV change has already begun in Hawaii, and unprepared residents lit up special help-center phone lines set up by the Federal Communication Commission and broadcasters. Hawaii went to all-digital TV signals on Thursday so that broadcasters and park rangers could take down analog transmission towers on the slopes of Maui’s Haleakala volcano before the nesting season of an endangered bird.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More