Just smacked down by the courts, the low-power TV industry's lobby is asking Congress for $450 million to make the conversion to digital as soon as possible, saying that many in the industry face bankruptcy and potential ruin due to government policies.

Low-power stations aren't required to make the DTV transition by any set date, but the Community Broadcasters Association [1] is concerned that if stations don't make the switch soon, they could be left behind in an analog world that few people can access.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined this week to step in. The CBA asked it to force the Federal Communications Commission to enforce its All-Channel Receiver Act [2], which the CBA said would have required that all DTV-to-analog converter boxes contain the analog tuners that would allow viewers to still get analog low-power stations' signals after the Feb. 17, 2009, date on which full-power TV stations must pull the plug on their analog signals.

To read the complete article, click here [3].