Grand Theft Digital: How Corporate Broadcasters Will Hijack Digital TV
The switch to digital TV is essentially a $70 billion gift from taxpayers to broadcasters. So, what will we get in return?
On Feb. 17, 2009, a massive but so far little-noted corporate theft of the public airwaves will be consummated as U.S. analog TV stations switch to digital TV (DTV) broadcasting. Digital broadcast technology enables three, four and sometimes more separate channels to be compressed into the space formerly occupied by a single old-fashioned analog TV channel. So when the transition from analog to digital TV occurs nationwide, each of the nation’s more than 1,700 broadcast TV license holders will suddenly have two, three or more additional channels, a gift from the taxpayers worth an estimated $70 billion.
Back in the mid-1990s, the owners of TV stations promised Congress that the advent of DTV would bring with it a wide selection of new programming, educational and children’s shows, frequently updated local newscasts and interactive content, all free, over the new digital broadcast airwaves. Of course, they lied.
on July 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I can go one better, When cable television was declared a utility congress made it illegal to simultaneously charge for service and show commercial. It was to be one or the other but never both.