Between the coming demise of analogue broadcasting (making most US tv receivers obsolete for plain vanilla over the air reception), the DVD format wars, high-definition tv...I would not be surprised to see all but a handful of deep-pocketed consumers...buy nothing at all.
Americans have become used to cheap, good, color tvs. You can still buy one--new analogue sets STILL have no warnings on them about their coming obsolescense.
When the reality sinks in of the death of analogue and the rest, I expect consumers to be angry. Very angry.
"Holy schmoke," they sez to themselves. "We can shuffle things around and move our squatters off of half our frequencies, and then auction 'em off to the highest bidder. We'll make Millions!" (Aide whispers into Fed's ear.) "Uhh, we'll make BILLIONS!!!"
"And this digital hooey gives us the perfect opportunity to do it!"
Haven't you heard, the Federal Government is going to fund and adapter for people so they won't lose access to television once the move takes place.
Government is crap. Government is set up to screw the little person and give breaks to big business. Both parties, having agreed to this thing, are crap.
Right. I've heard people compare it to the days of black and white TV being replaced by color when people complain about it. It's a rather ridiculous argument - you can still use a black and white TV to watch color broadcasts - they are just in black and white!