President Barack Obama made the digital TV delay official on Wednesday by signing legislation putting off the switch until June 12, according to a statement from the White House.

The Senate had previously voted for a delay of the initial term which was set for February 17. President Obama finally signed the bill hoping to give millions of unprepared viewers four more months to upgrade their equipment so they don't lose over-the-air programming.

According to latest estimates, just shortly under 6 million Americans have not yet bought the special converter boxes that will be necessary to continue receiving free TV signals on analog sets once the transition is completed while millions are only partially prepared for the change.

Lawmakers explained that despite years of planning, the $1.5 billion federal program to aid consumers during the switch has been underfunded and overwhelmed. A program that offered consumers $40 coupons to buy converter boxes reached its budget limit last month, leaving the requests for more than 3.7 million coupons on a waiting list. It will be months before they can be delivered to consumers. The main issue are the people who applied for the coupons but haven’t gotten them or got them but let them expire.

Obama’s team pushed for the change since shortly after his election, arguing that many minority, elderly and rural households were not prepared for the changeover.

“During these challenging economic times, the needs of American consumers are a top priority of my administration,” Obama said in a statement. “This law, which was crafted in a bipartisan way and passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate, ensures that our citizens will have more time to prepare for the conversion.”

While some television stations decided to obey the newly set deadline, more than a quarter of all TV stations across the country say they'll shut down their analog broadcasts on February 17th, despite the four-month extension from congress. They include Fox, CBS and ABC affiliates in San Diego; NBC, ABC, CBS and Telemundo affiliates in Santa Barbara; and KJLA and KHIZ, independent stations in Los Angeles.

The main reason why around 500 stations will be going through with the transition as initially established for next week is the expensive costs of continuing the transmission of the analog signal.

However, the Federal Communications Commission said the switch planned by some networks on February 17 represents a “significant risk of substantial public harm,” and is requiring those stations to certify they meet additional requirements before they may go all-digital next week.

The stations are in markets across the country, including: Dayton, Ohio; Eugene, Ore.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Sioux City, Iowa; Topeka, Kan.; Wichita, Kan.; Waco, Texas; La Crosse, Wisc.; Madison, Wisc.; Rockford, Ill.; Lincoln, Neb.; Burlington, Vt.; and Billings, Mont.