The Transition to Digital Television in the United States : The Endgame

The switching off of analogue television on 12 June 2009 and the delays that led up to it are the focus of the analysis here. All digital transitions are difficult but the US transition was successful in the end, in spite of a number of decisions and policies that made life confusing and overly complicated at one time or another for all concerned. The decision to delay the analogue switch off from 17 February to 12 June 2009 was one of the first initiatives undertaken by the newly elected Obama administration. The delay was necessary because of the under-funding of a programme to provide coupons for analogue-digital converter boxes to those still dependent on over-the-air broadcasts