Over a decade, technical standards were hammered out and complicated transition rules ordained. The result is technology adoption by committee. While a switch-over date has been set in law, no one seriously believes that analog broadcasting will go dark in 2006. If they did, they d be buying digital TV sets. Yet, of 100 million U.S. TV households, only 50,000 are equipped to receive digital off-air signals.
Consumers see high prices and major uncertainties about long-term adoption.
Don t do it. It assumes that the digital television transition, as mapped out, is the one and true path to consumer satisfaction. And it does so without cross-checks from the marketplace, feedback from customers. Costs to viewers, competitors, and technology creators are eliminated from the analysis. In just one area digital must carry these costs may be terribly high, soaking up valuable bandwidth on cable and satellite systems to distribute programming of little interest to customers.