Digital TV Transition in the US
by Dave Wilson on Jul.10, 2003, under Uncategorized
I always look forward to the
Masked Engineer columns in TV Technology magazine. Recently, he has been commenting on the FCC’s attempts to impose digital TV transmission here in the USA.
Looking at the situation here, I see one enormous difference compared to the so-far rather successful transition in the UK. There is absolutely nothing in it for the consumer in the USA. Some hardened videophiles would argue that you get better picture and sound using digital transmission but for 99% of the punters watching TV at home, this makes no difference at all. They have the choice to go out and spend several hundred dollars on a digital TV settop box and what do they get for it? Essentially exactly what they had before – the same number of terrestrial channels with the same content.
Back in the UK, spending 99 quid on a converter gives you access to the usual 5 channels plus a dozen or so more that are only available on digital. There is some incentive for a consumer to buy the new hardware since it gives them more than they would have had without it.
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