Today begins a new era in Television transmission in North America. February 17th was to be the day that our old analog TV broadcasts in the U.S. were to have been stopped, with all broadcasting shifting to digital. This was extended by the Obama administration to June 12th, 2009 as not everyone had a chance to take advantage of government subsidized set top boxes. Regardless, 421 broadcasters will go ahead and shut down their analog transmitters at midnight tonight, including WUTV Fox 29 in Buffalo which we here in Niagara receive. For a complete list visit http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-288530A2.xls .
Incidentally the transition in Canada won’t happen until August 31st, 2011. More information is available at http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/ca02336.html . If you have cable TV, satellite TV, or a new (less than 2 years old) flat panel TV this transition won’t affect you.
