Silicon Valley CEOs Support Hard Cutoff Date for Analog TV

The CEOs of nine leading high-tech companies sent a letter to Congressman Joe Barton, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, today expressing their support of a hard cutoff date for the transition to digital television. In the letter, the heads of Intel, IBM, HP, Dell, Motorola, Applied Materials, NCR, Unisys and EMC said that they favor a "date certain" for the analog cutoff, although they did not address when specifically that date should be. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the letter also stated the CEOs' support of using a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the analog spectrum to subsidize the purchase of analog-to-digital converter boxes for people who currently utilize over-the-air broadcasts rather than cable or satellite service (about 15% of the TV population).