Swift House Action On DTV Nightlight Bill Dims

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

While the Senate was expected Thrusday to pass a bill allowing TV stations to keep their analog signals on for 30 days after the Feb. 17 cut-off date, it looks like nothing will happen in the House until the week of Dec. 8, when the House is scheduled to return from the Thanksgiving break.

"Since the House is going out of session today before the Senate’s passed the DTV bill it doesn’t look like we’ll get to the bill this week," said Emily Kryder, press secretary to Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), who introduced a similar bill in the House. "Hopefully we’ll be able to do something when we return the week of Dec. 8," although she added "that’s unclear at this point."

The bill has backing from the FCC and the White House.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.