Jon Podesta and President Barrack Obama have issued their support for a proposal to change the date that NTSC signals will be stopped. This transition to ATSC broadcasts has been a long time in the making but I cant imagine pushing the dated from February 17th to June 12th is going to make that big of a difference and neither does CES Chief Gary Shapiro. In a letter he wrote to President Obama he outlined 5 specific alternatives to pushing the date back:

1. A fix of the accounting issues such as the anti-deficiency rules that are preventing NTIA from sending out coupons despite available funding. Only 19 million of the 33.5 million available coupons have been redeemed.
2. Examine total funding for the coupon program and explore any need for additional funding, for example, to send coupons out via first class mail to eliminate three week delivery delays.
3. Elimination of the 90-day expiration date on coupons, which would put more coupons into use.
4. Explore additional funding for government call centers and funding to local grassroots groups to answer questions about the DTV transition.
5. Should the government determine that the supply of converter boxes will not meet demand, examine permitting use of converter box coupons to purchase access to digital television either through pay service (cable, satellite or fiber) or credit toward purchase of a limited feature or low cost digital television.

Personally, I don't think things are quite ready yet. Some signals still seem weak and public awareness isn't total yet. But, I also don't think a delay of a few weeks is going to make a tremendous difference. Keep the transition date and push for better quality signals. I can barely even get PBS in my bedroom.