Sunday, December 28, 2008

DTV

Have you heard? Digital TV is taking over from analog TV in February. Of course you’ve heard. Who hasn’t? Martians probably know about this. Why is this news so important? Does it require the huge media blitz attached to it? More important, in these times of economic turmoil, how much is it costing? How much of it is taxpayer money? I don’t know. Do you?

Can you say overkill? How about overspending?

What a waste of money!

2 comments - Post a comment :

Anonymous said...

The FCC is actually selling the rights to the Analog Spectrum. As of right now, I believe that have recieved $18 Billion for those rights. $1.5 Billion was alotted to DTV Transition Program. That's the FCC profitting $16.5 Billion if the information is accurate.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous:

Thank you for the information. When I searched the internet for this information I was a victim of "garbage in, garbage out." Searching "DTV" and "HDTV" did not give me the information I wanted. Searching "FCC selling rights to the analog spectrum" did.

I had heard of the selling of the analog spectrum, I did not know about the particulars, including how much money is involved. I seem to recall that the analog spectrum is now (as of February) supposed to be used for more emergency type broadcasting. If that is the case why would the FCC sell it?

I've always heard that the airwaves belong to the public, and that this is a good thing. If this is true, why is the FCC selling a good chunk of it? It must be a valuable resource if the private sector is willing to pay $18 billion (actually 19.6 billion is more acurate) for it. Is the American public being short changed?

New Wave by Jack Schafer is an interesting look at "the spectrum."

It is interesting to me that dtv.gov does not mention any of the information you provided. (At least I couldn't find it anywhere on the site.)

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