The US House of Representatives defied the Senate vote to move the switch to Digital TV from February 17th 2009 to June by blocking the bill. The reasons cited were that it would be unfair to delay the switch as it would run up unnecessary expenses for broadcasters and confuse consumers. This is considered a minor setback for the Obama administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill who argued that too many Americans are not ready for the switch.

By law analogue signals will have to be stopped come 17 February in the US in order to free up the airwaves for public safety networks and new wireless data services. South Africa will follow the same route but on a different time frame. Digital TV is already operational in South Africa but will run concurrent to the classic analogue television service for a while. Amazingly only a nudge under 6% of the US population are not ready for the switch, with the main reason for their not having converted yet, being that there is a shortfall on the coupon system helping people pay for the converters necessary. There is a 90 day cycle whereby unused coupons expire and can be recycled into the system for assistance in this regard.

It is expected that by the end of this year 50% of households will have access to Digital TV in South Africa. 80% should have access by the end of 2010 and the switch off of analogue should occur on 1 November 2011 if all goes to plan. It probably won’t (knowing us South Africans), but we at least have the ball rolling.