[opendtv] News: Markey Expects 'Hard' DTV Date To Move
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- Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 06:46:54 -0500
Markey Expects 'Hard' DTV Date To Move
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/5/2005 8:50:00 AM
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tells C-SPAN in an interview slated for
Monday night that he expects the House version's Dec. 31, 2008,
deadline for the cut-off of analog service and the switch to digital
TV will be delayed.
According to C-SPAN., when asked about the transition and the amount
of money the Republican-backed first-come, first-served set-top box
subsidy would cover, about 10 million out of a possible 20 million
households or more, Market says: "My best is that Republicans will
back off...there will be a delay in the date to turn off analog TV
sets in America..."
Markey has been one of the most vocal critics of the House-passed DTV
transition bill. Unlike the bipartisan Senate version that allocates
$3 billion to a subsidy that would cover everyone, the House version
requiries viewers to actively seek out the subsidy, and would only
put $960 million towards it.
The Senate bill also sets an April 7, 2009, hard date.
When the House bill passed in October, Markey argued that it was an
attempt to save tax cuts on the backs of the poor by returning most
of the spectrum auction receipts-anywhere from $10 billion to perhaps
as much as $30 billion-to the treasury rather than sufficiently
funding the subsidy first, which would primarily benefit the poor and
elderly.
Without a subsidy covering everyone, he said at the time, the January
2009 hard date would be untenable.
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