Again, its one thing when technology obsoletes.. its another when its forced to halt by government fiat.
"Again, its one thing when technology obsoletes.. its another when its forced to halt by government fiat."
Well, you're right, of course. The thing is that the technology is already obsolete. Analog broadcast television has been with us since 1946, and is still using the same frequencies.
One of the reasons that digital television has not been broadcase is the long line of old analog television sets still out there. I have a 1949 Crosley 7" B&W set in my rec room, and it still gets the local stations, when I bother to turn it on to show kids what television once was.
Digital broadcast television will never be able to happen as long as there are all those analog receivers out there. The thing is, though, that cable and satellite has pretty much obliviated the need for the tuner in your TV.
The broadcast industry wants to go digital, but won't if their viewers can't see their broadcasts. The cable companies are neutral, since they have to provide some sort of receiver to their customers anyhow. They'd like to do it digitally, though.
So, what to do with the obsolete TV sets? The answer is an inexpensive digital to analog converter. That's what's being proposed here. It's a necessary stage.
Remember when color television first appeared? I certainly do. One of the things that limited it was the necessity of making color broadcasts compatible with B&W sets. It was kind of unfortunate, really, because we'd all be watching high-definition television now if that hadn't been the case. But it was, so we have the mediocre NTSC standard.
So, who watches over-the-air broadcast television these days? Not many folks. Most of them are rural, poor, or not served by cable. So, we give them a little converter box and they go on with their viewing. It'll be a one-time thing.
Broadcast television is about to go away entirely. Count on it. But, it can't just yet.