Obama Calls for DTV Delay

NEW YORK President-elect Barack Obama joined the Consumers Union in urging Congress to reconsider the Feb. 17 digital transition deadline.

In a letter to lawmakers Thursday, John Podesta, co-chair of Obama's transition team, called for an extension. "With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote.

According to Nielsen, about 7.8 million households or 6.8 percent of total U.S. TV homes are completely unprepared. Adweek is a unit of the Nielsen Co.

Podesta pointed to "major difficulties" in the preparation for the Feb. 17 deadline, including the more than 1 million requests for converter box coupons that cannot be filled because funding ran out. By February, Podesta suggested the number of unhonored requests could run to over 5 million.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, responded that the Obama team is overreacting. "We don't need to bail out the DTV transition program because it isn't failing. And reintroducing uncertainty to the switch will make things worse instead of better," said Barton, who is working with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., on a bill to help the government meet the coupon demand. "Ditching the deadline and slathering on more millions of taxpayer dollars, however, is just panic," Barton said.

The National Association of Broadcasters has also asked Congress to act to ensure coupons are made available for those who need them. The NAB did not, however, urge that the DTV deadline be extended.

"The certainty created when Congress set the Feb. 17 hard date for the DTV transition was a positive catalyst for broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers, public safety groups, consumers and the government. NAB and broadcasters nationwide are committed to being ready by Feb. 17 and strongly support a solution that would enable the government to continue making converter box coupons available to consumers who rely on free television," the NAB said in a statement.