Why 'by law' are we going from analog to digital tv in February?

Question

Already have digital cable, but just curious as to why the government is butting in on this issue and mandating the digital. I'm sure there's a really good answer, but I don't see what the big deal is.

Answer 1

Because digital offers so much more flexibility. Each digital channel can carry 19 megabits per second of video. Stations can divide that up in several ways -- all in one HD channel or in multiple SD channels. So you can have a lot more channels of content available.

One thing that many people don't understand is that the transition is only about broadcast TV, i.e. what you get with an antenna only. Cable and satellite already have tons of channels. In fact, digital cable has been around for years, but it's not what's involved in the DTV transition.

Answer 2

there doing this because the government only wants people to have one type of tv service and they want more money

Answer 3

Its because the digital cable is cheeper to maintain than the analog, and it is easier to maintain as well, either that, or they secretly put psychik messages in them so they can secretly control our minds and plan to take over the world...

Answer 4

to free up the bandwidth for government use, satellites, spy stuff,etc