Federal Budget Analysts Wary of '06 DTV Switch

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is apprehensive that a Dec. 31, 2006 cutoff from analog to digital television broadcasting may lessen the amount of revenue generated by a sale of the analog spectrum to wireless telecom carriers. That revenue, which a deficit-ridden federal government would very much like to maximize, could also be used to partially subsidize analog-to-digital converters for low-income and/or rural consumers who utilize over-the-air TV signals rather than cable or satellite but who won't have yet upgraded to HDTV or have digital broadcasts available in their area.

Multichannel News reports that Senate Commerce Committee majority staff director Lisa Sutherland told attendeees at the Cable Television Public Affairs Association conference last week that "just from purely a budget perspective, [the CBO said] the later the digital transition occurs, the more funding would be made available to the federal government through the auction process."