Washington (DC) - With the signing into law of the budget reconciliation bill today, the 17 February 2009 "hard date" for the transition of US commercial analog television broadcasting, is now fixed in stone. Unless Congress would like to start the whole debate over again (it has before), the end of VHF and most of UHF is at hand.

Getting off one final shot, National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO David K. Rehr applauded the bill's signing, saying, "We have crossed an important threshold." Praising Congress for adopting several pro-consumer measures in the final legislation, Rehr fired off, "We're encouraged that the bill thwarted cable industry attempts to degrade the quality of HDTV pictures to consumers." However, the final legislation in HR 4241 made no mention of whether to extend the "must-carry" requirement that cable operators must carry broadcast signals over their services, in the wake of enhancements to digital signals that enable up to four "sub-channels" per channel. Separate legislation to tackle this issue may be forthcoming.

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