Television will go digital on February 17 but for more than a year, broadcasters across the country have been promoting the transition. Therefore people who plan to continue using an antenna for their TV signals are going to have to have a converter box. According to the Federal Communications Commission, if you receive only free over-the-air television programming, you need the converter. That includes "rabbit ear" antennae. According to the FCC, a converter box is needed for each TV set or device, such as a video recorder, that has only an analog tuner.

But The Federal Communications Commission has said 18 percent of the nation's full-power television stations will have a digital signal that reaches at least 2 percent fewer viewers than their current analog broadcasts. As many as 8 million U.S. households rely on analog TV sets at the moment.

President-elect Barack Obama asked Congress on Thursday to delay next month's planned switch to all-digital broadcast television. In a letter to key members of Congress on Thursday, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's presidential transition team, said the conversion should be delayed. He did not specify how long the delay should be.

"With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively-mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote to the chairmen and top Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Some TV station execs were perplexed about the possibility that the transition could be delayed, considering that roughly $1 billion in free advertising has been shelled out for awareness of the transition and that it's been relatively successful, with more than 90% of households cognizant of the change.