US senate postoned the DTV switch to June 12th today. the purpose of this being that they dont want to leave anyone in the dark on broadcast tv. at last count, there are about 6 million people who would be out of luck if analog tv died today, and a good chunk of them dont care, because they dont watch tv. tech news site ars technica explores why analog tvs are getting special government treatment to save them from obselecense while other technologies (such as computers) are ignored once they are too old to work. the onus is on the consumer, as it should be, and right now a hundred million people are ready for the switch. a delay means more money wasted. the amount of money that will be wasted far exceeds the amount it would take to replenish the converter box coupon fund (which shouldn't need to be replenished anyway)
Update: on Jan 28th, the house rejected the bill to postpone the transition, and unless something else happens to change this situation, we are back on schedule for the feb 17th transition date
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