UPDATE: Obama supports DTV delay (Washington Post)

In a letter sent to Capitol Hill this afternoon, and obtained by The Washington Post, the transition team said congressional action is needed. The action would be the "first step" toward helping consumers get ready for the transition to digital television. It also called funds provided to support the conversion "woefully inadequate."

Original post: Yesterday, the Consumers Union urged Congress to delay the long-scheduled February 17th switch to digital television. We support the CU demand. On that date, all over-the-air analog TVs (older, non-digital TVs with antennae; no cable, no satellite service) go dark unless they have digital converter boxes. Since the digital switch is generating some $19 billion in revenue to the government from spectrum sales, Congress agreed to at least provide $40 coupons to subsidize the cost of converter boxes, since the consumers whose TVs would become obsolete had done no wrong. But the program has been beleaguered and mismanaged from the start, was never fully funded and is now out of money (at least temporarily) and is hugely backlogged. In addition, although I haven't seen any studies, there appears to be little competition in the converter box market, so most consumers are still out of pocket up to $40 after the coupon. Previous blog on our February 2008 report Mixed Signals.