Epic Default Productions

A little over forty years ago, Sweden was one of those crazy countries that used to drive on the left side of the road. But with more and more cars coming into the country from Europe, that were built to be driven on the right side of the road, they decided they needed to switch.

And so Dagen H, which is Swedish for “The H Day”—”H” for Högertrafik, meaning “right-hand traffic”—was created. Everybody in Sweden went to bed one night driving on the left side, and the next morning, they woke up driving on the right.

The signs were already in place, all the intersections set for right-side driving, and even new buses were running. Not a single person was killed because they were driving on the left side, and the first Monday after the switch saw even fewer traffic accidents than the week before.

So it came as no surprise to me to find out, during one of my class discussions on the topic of digital television (DTV), that Sweden has already made the switch. And they made it back in 2007. I’m guessing some, if not most, of the people reading this didn’t even know about a conversion toward DTV in 2007.

Yet the date of the switch here in the United States has been known since The Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005: four years! And mind you, people in the business have been talking about this switch since 2001, even the FCC.
This is why my panties are in such a bunch. If somebody had called me up yesterday when I started writing this article and asked me when the DTV switch is going to happen, the honest answer I would be able to give them is, “I don’t know.”

But as of February 2, 2009, there sits a bill in Congress that would push back the deadline to June 12, 2009. It’s already passed the Senate, once before getting shot down in the House and another time after. And most people are predicting it’s going to pass the House this time.

If it does pass, is that actually going to make things better? We’re almost two weeks away from the original deadline. It’s like if somebody moved Christmas Day a week before Christmas. Most people already have their presents (those with cable, satellite, or converter boxes already installed) and don’t need the extra time. It’s only people like my brother who go shopping on the Saturday before Christmas that are going to need it.

What’s sad is in that analogy, it’s the government and the television industry bigwigs that are playing the part of my brother. People who have known about this the longest are those scrambling to buy wiper blades at the local gas station with their spare change. Oh goodie!