Well the counter argument can be made... the government forced the current analog band to be limited, so all tv sets in existance had to comply...
Now they are selling off those frequencies and expect everyone to convert by their fiat.
I am no fan of entitlement, but I definately can see that because they have mandated that all TV broadcasting must switch, they are leaving those with existing technology locked out, through no fault of their own.
Since I got a DVR from my cable company and use a DVD for all recorded stuff, my TV set is really nothing more than a monitor now. I won't ever buy another TV set...just a monitor.
That seems to be where things are going, anyhow. I haven't received a TV signal over the air for years. My suspicion is that all over-the-air broadcasting of TV will end within 20 years, anyhow.
That's not necessarily a good thing, since local news is going to be hard to pay for under those conditions, but something will get figured out, I have no doubt.