NEW YORK — The big broadcast networks, already suffering from terrible ratings, will catch a break if the planned transition to digital signals is put off until June.
Pushed by the Obama administration, the Senate approved the delay, and the House is expected to follow suit. Instead of Feb. 17, the deadline would be June 12.
That means the transition — expected to leave millions of households at least temporarily without TV pictures — would take place after the TV season is over. With warmer weather and more reruns, fewer people are watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in June than in February.
There’s also the expectation that more homes will be ready to receive the digital signals by then. The latest estimate by Nielsen Media Research is that 6.5 million American homes still aren’t prepared for the switch.
“June is a much softer landing for both the networks and the viewers,” one network executive said Tuesday.
While still trying to get viewers ready for the switch, the TV industry was preparing for the expected fallout. The traditional February “sweeps,” when ratings are used to set local advertising prices, was put back to March.
Networks made programming changes.
CBS and ABC, for example, scheduled more reruns than usual for late February to keep fresh episodes of series available for March.
After last year’s writers strike, network viewership is down: 11 percent for ABC, 12 percent for NBC and 14 percent for Fox.
A Feb. 17 switch would have only worsened those numbers.
