Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Update: The Senate has blocked a bill Friday evening to move the switchover to June 12th. However, Democrats will bring back the bill for a vote within a week. --------- Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., incoming chairman of the powerful Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, on Thursday proposed legislation that would delay the USA's switch to digital TV nearly four months, to June 12. "I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition," Rockefeller said in a statement. Any extension also must be approved by the House. Separately, the House Appropriations Committee recommended $650 million in new funds for the DTV transition. "We're pleased to see Congress moving so quickly on an issue that will affect millions of consumers," says Chris Murray, a senior lawyer with Consumers Union, which supports a delay. Congress originally ordered the switch to digital TV ...

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is proposing the transition to all-digital television signals be delayed until June 12. The current DTV-switch date is Feb. 17, but President-elect Barack Obama last week asked legislators to push the date back. Meanwhile the Associated Press is reporting today that at noon sharp in Hawaii, a message appeared on analog TV sets across the islands: "All full-power Hawaii TV stations are now digital." The state has shut down old-fashioned broadcast signals more than a month before the rest of the country is set to make the now-contentious switch. Even before the change, residents lit up special TV help center phone lines set up by the Federal Communication Commission. On home screens, the shutdown message flashed for about a minute in white text on a blue background. Then, a seven-minute announcement video began a broadcast loop that will continue for several weeks on major island stations. Technicians are calling it t...