Digital Law: 2009

No one seems to be talking about this yet so I thought I'd put this into the public eyes. Congress has mandated that after February 17, 2009, full-power television broadcast stations must transmit only digital signals and may no longer transmit analog signals.

What does this mean? simply put, you will no longer be able use your standard "bunny ears" tv to watch freely transmitted television stations. You will need a digital converter to view these freely transmitted stations. Not a big deal right? spending upwards of 50-100 bucks for a converter.

I believe this issue goes a lot deeper than that. By the end of the month, UHF bandwidth is being auctioned off to the highest bidder. All major communication corporations are going head to head to purchase these bandwidths.

What they are actually purchasing is the future of global communications. Its not long until the Internet is available via satellite anywhere in the world. Offered to you on these bandwidth's- pretty cool I have to admit, however I think this conversion will cause some problems. Not to mention the motivation behind this boggles my mind.

I feel that the FCC and the government have found themselves the perfect "get rich quick scheme". There profiting immensely of the auction of frequency bandwidth that is currently already owned by television stations. By passing this bill through congress they have stolen this property and are auctioning it off as their own. Hmmmm... I wonder where else, other then the federal reserve, all these billions of recession proof dollars could be coming from?

I imagine these frequency bandwidths will auction for billions of dollars. Political motives aside, I really hope this does save our economy- something has to, its just a shame that this is what has to be done.

Personally, I hate digital medium for audio. It does not work as well nor as consistently as analog. We are putting way too much faith into a technology that still is in the works. My biggest fear is that this same conversion happens to radio station frequencies.

The FCC will say this will dramatically change TV as we know it, which is very true, however, after witnessing how our government operates over the past twenty years, Its obvious, that the only motivation for them would be political and monetary.

Ok, so the government cant fix social security, or the fact that 1 out of 7 people is uninsured (ah-hem), or the war in Iraq, but here hey are bringing us the best digital tv we deserve. I cant believe that this is their priority over issues that out-weigh tv a billion fold...I dont buy it. this is bullshit and I'll be the first to say no to DTV.