That's why the slow mo approach to DTV that the networks favor makes me think they know something the rest of us don't know. A couple of weeks ago broadcasters said that the build out schedule should have no rule requiring construction before six years but should involve voluntary commitments. And even though the commitments would have no force of law, broadcasters would only commit to have one market in the top ten with more than two networks transmitting a signal before the year 2003. Then last week UHF broadcasters suggested we pretend to adopt a plan allotting channels to all broadcasters but then tell everyone it's not final until we do another two years of testing. If broadcasters won't launch digital television quickly, then DTV is going to be a failure.
Satellite is there.
If broadcasters wait, it'll be too late. And today's broadcasters will have lost the delivery side of the Franchise. But the digital TV they're talking about is from a satellite. The amount that Sky proposes to spend on exploiting the DTV licenses in the next three years is probably less than one months interest payment on what it's spending on the satellite. I'm beginning to wonder if broadcasters really want these DTV licenses.