On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:13:36 GMT, in rec.aviation.piloting, Marty Shapiro
wrote:

(Scott) wrote in news:4748e56a.551894267@localhost:
The sensible part of my mind wants to think that if DTV adoption is
not high enough, the television advertising industry (which is the
only bunch of folks with any real stake in this) will subsidize the
devices to whatever degree necessary to retain their audience. The
cynical part of me says that in that circumstance, the ad industry
will cry and whine until the government pays to subsidize them.

I wouldn't hold my breath. OTA (over-the-air)class A channels (high
power) must switch to all digital on February 17, 2009. They do not have
the option of continuing to broadcast in analag after that date. Most

True, but consumers have the alternative to simply *not* upgrade their
equipment. When analog broadcasts stop, people can choose to just turn the
thing off and pick up a book instead. That's the sort of thing that
advertisers don't want to see, and the only real reason that settop digital
tuner equipment might be subsidized.

Cable and satellite are not required to switch to digital. Since

Some of them are already digital, some aren't -- it doesn't matter. An OTA
DTV settop tuner is just catching up with what the cable and sat guys have
been doing for years. Separate the tuner from the video and audio monitors,
you gain a lot of flexibility in the system.

-Scott