Alrighty, get ready to throw out your old tv if you don't have HD by 2009. Monsieur Bush has signed a bill that will deny broadcasters to send out analog signals by Feb 2009. In other words, if you telly doesn't have HD, you won't get to see the Americana channels.
So, imagine thousands upon thousands of tellies filling up the landscape. Talk about excessive garbage but hey, whatcha gonna do about it, eh?
[SPAN id=intelliTXT] CEA's Shapiro Says HDTV Is On A Roll With Rising Set Sales, Increasing Content and New Ways to View HD Programs
Calls on All Industries to Educate Consumers
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ALSEA OR-February 8, 2006 - President George Bush signed legislation into law today that set February 17, 2009 as the date when U.S. broadcasters must end their transmission of analog television signals. Some in the press have called it the "end of television as we know it." Others see it as a dawning of a new era. The legislation also allocates up to $1.5 billion to reimburse consumers who purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes, so their analog TV sets continue to work after the shut-off. The legislation excluded a provision that would have allowed cable operators to degrade a broadcaster's HDTV signals to "standard definition," and in doing denying consumers the means to see the highest-quality digital programming.
"With today's action," said Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro, "President Bush set a hard finish line for the nation's transition to DTV." The CEA, along with several other lobbying groups including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), supported a hard cut-off date. The stated belief has been that it would settle things down for the industry and public alike as well a free spectrum for more crucial uses, like homeland security communications. "This deadline," said Shapiro, "will provide certainty to manufacturers, retailers, consumers and all others with a stake in the transition." The newly installed NAB president David K. Rehr said at the time of the signing, "We have crossed an important threshold...The NAB is pleased that Congress adopted many pro-consumer DTV measures in the legislation, and we're encouraged that the bill thwarted cable industry attempts to degrade the quality of HDTV pictures to consumers."
CEA is forecasting that U.S. consumers will take home more than 18 million DTV sets and displays this year (2006). That would rack up a whopping 50 percent increase over 2005 sales.
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