WASHINGTON — The transition next month to digital television has been hailed as the biggest advance in over-the-air TV since the advent of color, but it’s shaping up to be another black eye for the government that could leave millions of viewers without a picture next month.

Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama asked Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch to all-digital broadcast television, called DTV.

The unspecified delay would give the government time to fix a consumer-help program that surprisingly ran out of money this week. It also would set back the long-promised benefits of digital TV, which offers a sharper picture and more free channels while opening up valuable airwaves for public safety and wireless Internet access.

The government took in $19.6 billion last year by auctioning existing analog TV airwaves to telecommunications companies for new wireless services, but Congress allocated less than $2 billion to educate consumers about the transition and issue coupons to buy needed converter boxes.

Now an estimated 7.7 million households nationwide could see their screens go dark next month.

A delay is far from certain, given potential opposition from broadcasters, public-safety agencies and telecommunications companies eager to start using those expensive new airwaves, but there was plenty of frustration being expressed Thursday with the way the digital TV transition has been run so far.

“The list of who’s to blame is long,” said Joel Kelsey, a longtime critic of the transition and policy analyst with Consumers Union, which also called for a delay this week. “It was a giant miscalculation by our federal government.”

Congress decided in 2005 to require all TV stations to broadcast only in digital in order to free up airwaves for public-safety use in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and for auction to telecommunications companies to ease the federal budget deficit.

People with cable, satellite or phone-company TV services will continue to receive broadcast stations. Locally, BendBroadband switched to a digital-only signal at the beginning of the year. But those who rely on antennas must have either a newer TV with a digital receiver or get a converter box. No-frills versions of those boxes cost between $40 and $70. To offset the expense, the federal government allocated $1.5 billion to provide households with a maximum of two $40 coupons each.

Monday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced that the program had used up all the funds allocated. The government agency has a waiting list of about 1.1 million coupon requests, which can be filled as unused coupons reach their 90-day expiration. So far, about 13 million of the 41 million coupons mailed have expired.

Paying full price?

Still, the nearly 8 million households that rely on antennas and are unprepared for the conversion are facing the prospect of paying full price for converter boxes during a recession — or watching their TVs go blank after the switch.

In a letter Thursday to key members of Congress, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama’s presidential transition team, said the Feb. 17 conversion should be delayed, although he did not specify for how long. With the incoming administration facing economic and foreign-policy crises, it does not want to add a major problem with broadcast TV in its first few weeks in office.

Podesta cited troubles with the coupon program, as well as what he called inadequate government efforts to educate the public about the switch and to help particularly the elderly, the poor and those living in rural areas prepare for it.

“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 and the House commerce committees.

Podesta said the waiting list for coupons could climb to more than 5 million by early February. Obama has said he supports waiving federal rules preventing agencies from exceeding their budgets to allow the national telecom administration agency to send out new coupons before existing ones expire. He is planning to include an additional unspecified amount of money for the digital TV switch in the economic stimulus package that is being drafted.

“The Obama administration deserves time to bring order to what has been an appallingly mismanaged process by the Bush administration,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., who supports a delay.

But Democratic congressional leaders were not ready to embrace Obama’s request. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the relevant committees were working with Obama’s transition team to solve the problems.

Some Republicans said that Obama was panicking unnecessarily and that Congress needed only to make small legislative fixes to the coupon program.

“We don’t need to bail out the DTV transition program, because it isn’t failing, and reintroducing uncertainty to the switch will make things worse instead of better,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “Ditching the deadline and slathering on more millions of taxpayer dollars, however, is just panic.”

NTIA has requested a temporary allocation of $250 million to resolve the coupon backlog, said acting administrator Meredith Atwell Baker. She said the Bush administration opposed a delay and defended the agency, saying it was hard to predict the surge in demand for coupons in December. That demand might have been triggered by the financial crisis as people who otherwise would have bought new digital TVs opted instead to seek government-subsidized converter boxes, she said.

“We have not been in the predicting business,” Baker said. “Congress established everything about this program. We are just the implementers.”

The National Association of Broadcasters was cautious in its response Thursday, saying it was willing to work with Obama and Congress “to ensure a successful DTV transition.”

Broadcasters have invested billions of dollars in preparing for the switch and are anxious to turn off their analog signals, which use large amounts of electricity. At the same time, stations do not want to lose viewers because their TVs can’t receive digital signals.

Things to know about the switch

Q: Who is affected by the digital TV transition?

A: Households that use roof-top or rabbit-ear antennas to watch TV are affected. Those TVs must have a built-in digital tuner or a digital-to-analog converter box to watch the new broadcasts.

Q: How can I tell if my TV has a digital tuner?

A: Nearly all sets made before 1998 were analog. Since March 2007, all new sets have had to have digital tuners. They are labeled DTV, HDTV, ATSC, EDTV, SDTV or Integrated Digital Tuner, Digital Tuner Built-In, Digital Receiver or Digital Tuner.

Q: How can I get a coupon for a converter?

A: Each household is eligible for two $40 coupons for digital converter boxes. Call 888-DTV-2009 or go to dtv2009 .gov.

Q: Do I need a coupon?

A: No. You can buy a converter box at most electronics retailers and large stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. They cost $40 to $70.

— Los Angeles Times