Washington Post staff writers Kim Hart and Peter Whoriskey dish out a wonderful narrative in their article on the Washington conundrum that has turned the digital broadcast transition into a comedy of errors:
But with two federal agencies in charge, no clear idea of how many people would be affected and constant partisan disagreements over money, the program foundered just before its long-standing Feb. 17 deadline. It has now been pushed back four months.
The result is confusion for the millions of Americans for whom the television is not simply another electronic device in the home but a crucial source of news and information. The idea that the government might deprive people of television reception strikes some as unjust and, in the event of emergencies, possibly dangerous.
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Getting out from under legacy systems isn’t easy, as anyone who has to deal in content management and IT dependencies know. We also want our customers to become stakeholders, but this is so big it can teach us whole new lessons. In the context of our recent industry conversation on paid content online, congress’ move to hold off the big DTV cutoff for reasons above should make everyone stop and think.
The new deadline for the transition is June 12.