Originally Posted By: BobS
The purpose of the switchover to digital TV is pure greed on the government’s part.

There is a very limited amount of radio spectrum, the low end is sound and the top end is light waves (sound, radio and light waves are basically the same thing only different frequencies.)

The government rents out space on the radio spectrum to whoever has enough money to buy its use.

Digital signals take up less space then analog signals. This translates to a lot more space to rent out and collect money for its use by the government.

There is no commercial gain for television networks from the push to go digital.


Couldn't disagree with this more. Not everything is a conspiricy. This is being done both to replace a 50 year old, inefficient technology that's way past its time and for the demand from the consumer for a far superior picture quality. This is apparently a bad forum to look for an example of people who do want everything in high-definition but I can assure there are a lot of people who have been demanding it.

As you say, there is a very limited amount of radio spectrum available. This itself justifies the switch to a format that uses a fraction of the spectrum while allowing the station to broadcast multiple channels (did you say "no commercial gain"?). This frees up the spectrum for the growing demand.

The money the government collects by "renting" out the spectrum is just a bonus. Since "the government" is you and I, I'd outraged if they didn't get as much as they can out of it for commercial use.