WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- The chairman of the U.S. House Commerce Committee has endorsed a plan to speed up conversion to digital TV transmission.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, suggested during a committee hearing that the federal government should help low-income people acquire digital converter boxes, in the process of requiring broadcasters to give up analog TV channels by 2006, the Hollywood Reporter said Thursday.
"Why shouldn't the committee, this Congress or next Congress ... set up some sort of fund to help pay (for converter boxes) for low-income citizens?" Barton said.
The Reporter said Barton's suggestion surprised many at the hearing, since he has been generally regarded as a "free market" Republican, opposed to government subsidies.
Other members of Congress and representatives of the broadcasting industry, have previously signed on to the idea of government helping low-income people -- who often do not subscribe to satellite or cable services -- acquire the equipment necessary to receive digital TV transmissions.
