The New DTV Delay Act - What They Forgot to Tell You

    ST. LOUIS, MO, February 15, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Broadcast technology has evolved by leaps and bounds since the first television was made commercially available back in the early 1930's, but we have come into an even newer age with the advent of digital television.

On February 19th, 2009, all full-power analog television broadcasts were due to cease entirely and give way to the new digital television era, but it was not to be so. The DTV Delay Act was enacted on February 4th, 2009 and effectively extends the analog cutoff date to June 12th, 2009. Among the reasons for the delay is the fact that there are still millions upon millions of people who are still not prepared for the transition, even though a large number of coupons for DTV converter boxes were given out by the US government since 2005.

"We believe it is irresponsible to ask mostly rural, or elderly consumers to reach into their own pockets to deal with this transition when many folks, including the federal government, are making a profit," said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Consumers Union.

But, what they're not telling you is that those people who live in rural areas or only have access to an antenna on top of their home or on their property will need to buy a DTV-enabled antenna, even if all of the televisions in their home are DTV compatible. Older analog antennas are not designed to pick up the digital or HD signals.

Some stations are switching early to digital transmissions only, which means a number of consumers will lose some of the channels they are used to receiving since the DTV Delay Act does not require stations to wait until the June 12th deadline to switch. They may do so at any time before then and some have stated that they are going ahead with the former deadline.

Not only that, but neither cable companies nor satellite providers give you the full HD that the over-the-air digital broadcasts are able to give you. An HD broadcast is a lot of data to be sending over a network that used to only send lesser analog data, but instead of building more infrastructure to be able to send consumers the real thing, the signal is crunched and compressed. This has begun to upset those that have purchased a big screen HDTV or plasma screen who want what they're paying for every month: real 1080i HDTV signals.

So, how much does an HDTV antenna cost? That depends on where you live in relation to your closest HD tower. The placement and style of antenna affects how far away you can pick up a signal, but some can pick up as far as 100 miles away.

Is there a reason to buy an HD antenna, even if you already have cable television? Almost everyone has experienced the cable going out before, especially in the middle of severe weather, but the antenna will almost always pick up a signal.

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