US Senate Passes Bill to Delay Digital TV Transition

Only a couple days after Congress rejected a bill to delay the switch to digital TV, the US Senate on Thursday has passed a slightly revised bill to delay the transition. As with the previous bill, the newly modified bill will still need to be passed by the House of Representatives but according to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller, it stands a much better chance of passing.

What has changed in the bill? Actually a major key point, it would allow stations to voluntarily choose when to make the switch to digital after the mandated date of February 17th and between the June date.

The bill from earlier this week failed to pass by a vote 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date, which was considered a failure as two-thirds of the votes are required for it to pass.