Senate Offers $3B Subsidy for Digital Transition

Interested in a digital TV but scared off by the price?

Lawmakers want to spend $3 billion to make sure millions of Americans won’t wake up to blank TV screens when the country makes the switch to all-digital broadcasts, NewsFactor says.

The subsidy was approved last week by the Senate Commerce Committee as part of legislation that would set April 7, 2009, as the firm date for television broadcasters to end their traditional analog transmissions and send their broadcasts via digital signals.

Millions of Americans with older TV sets will need some type of a converter box to keep receiving their television service over the airwaves.

For details, see: www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12000002RTIO