FCC Moves Up Digital TV Deadline

The FCC on Thursday said that television manufacturers must get moving on supporting digital television in new sets, and announced it was moving up the deadlines for compliance with a three-year old policy by the commission.

Sets between 25 and 36 inches must now support digital singals by March 1, four months earlier than the 2002 ruling had mandated. Along with the change in policy, the commission has proposed to move up the deadline for small TVs to the end of 2006, which would be seven months earlier than the previous date.

Congress has pushed for a full switch to digital TV by December 2006; however, scarce availability of digital sets have brought that date into question.

The original law passed by Congress in 1997 does have a loophole where the deadline can be delayed in certain markets if less than 85 percent of households have digital-ready TVs.

"We need to push the transition to its conclusion as expeditiously as possible," said Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy.

Several consumer groups have voiced their support for the change, saying the deadlines were causing retailers to think that consumers wouldn't go just yet for the more expensive digital sets, and thus were ordering less digital-capable TVs over the more expensive digital-ready models.