Why exactly is there a requirement to switch to digital television??

Most Likely Reason - Greed


I've been wondering about this from some time. I assume there is logic (probably mostly lobbyists' money going into the hands of Congressmen, but also some logic) behind this. But the weird thing is, while you see all these television commercials telling you it's happening and how you have to get a converter box (which for some reason that is completely beyond me is being subsidized by other taxpayers who aren't idiotic enough to still be watching television off an antenna), they never tell you why. There's never any rational explanation for the move. I can think of some, but I'm pretty highly educated and read a lot, so I don't think it's fair to assume that other people can draw rational conclusions. The idea that the image is better is a completely ABSURD reason for such a radical action. I believe the Consumer Electronics Association is at the helm of this (see their annoying video explaining the switch).

Here is another explanation, that implicates both the government and industry, while doing nothing for consumers, so it sounds spot on and is indirectly via Consumer Reports: "The channels being returned to the government by broadcasters in February 2009 are located between Channel 51 and Channel 69 on the television dial, along one of the most highly coveted portions of the broadcast spectrum technically known as the 700 MHz band. Signals in this band travel farther and are able to easily penetrate buildings and other forms of interference.

Congress has directed the Federal Communications Commission to reserve about a third of the returned spectrum for public safety agencies and auction off the rest. The auction of those airwaves began in January 2008 and is expected to raise billions of dollars.

One of the most often mentioned uses for the returned spectrum has been wireless broadband, which could potentially provide a potent new competitor for existing high speed Internet providers, such as cable and phone companies. A host of other wireless applications are also being touted."

As things are pretty much fine for wireless applications right now, this is clearly an unnecessary step. I also wonder, honestly, why the government has a sudden need for more public safety channels that no normal people can access anymore. How would these be public safety channels? What would they do? Here is a long, somewhat interesting attack on the auction process via an amicus brief of sorts.

It just invites too much analysis. I mean even Reuters has an article lying about it: "Congress ordered the switch to digital, effective February 17, to free up public airwaves for other uses, such as for police and fire departments." I mean, really. That's obviously not why they're doing it. That's only a third of the bandwidth, and the remainder is less than is necessary to maintain analog channels.

See, for example, what they think on the internet:

The main concern is that there is a camera inside the converter boxes - "Matarina" from youtube posted a video trying to debunk this theory. I have to agree with those commenting that it was extremely poorly done and totally uncompelling. But 41K have watched it. Yes, a lot of people are concerned about this.

Possibility 1: Conspiracy on the part of the government to spy on Americans
The main reason I don't buy this is alluded to above - I don't know exactly how many people have old televisions AND aren't using cable, but I just can't imagine that's the target group for a mass government spy operation. Unless you can explain how cable currently allows for this, in which case, this would close a loophole in the government spy program. There is a suggestion somewhere in this madness that specifically televisions made after 1995 are spy ready and thus do not need this addition. Here are some thoughts from random people.

2 weeks ago, user "Bookkid900" posted a video on CNN's ireport (a bizarre concept that deserves its own analysis vis-a-vis the dumbing down of "news") - in his own words "I have a friend who is kind of a conspiracy theorist. He was trying to convince me that the many of the digital TV convert boxes that our coming out have microphones and cameras built into them. Knowing a bit about electronics I bought one of these devices opened it up fully intending on proving him wrong. To my surprise was right. This device has both a miniature camera lens and what looks like a microphone. I was so shocked I took pictures and video Please send this out to every one you know who is using one of these devices." Here is his video.
Intriguingly, after nearly 700 views, there is only one comment, suggesting that the government wouldn't be capable of transmitting this information anywhere. Which, "Southerner01," is wildly faulty, given that information is somehow going through the box. Why would it make sense that it can come in, go out into the television, but can't be broadcast elsewhere? You should really do a little research into how sophisticated spying mechanisms have become before making idiotic comments. Especially with the "southerner" moniker. I mean, really. You already have a strike against you in terms of stereotyped intelligence.

Remarkably, a crazy man broadcasting on youtube has made this point, by referencing an even crazier website.

Possibility 2: Goal of tricking Americans into beliving things have happened that haven't actually happened

The idea here is that digital is so capable of manipulation that the government would broadcast things that didn't happen to convince us they did, for unknkown purposes. The fellow who makes this compelling argument on youtube, against his best interest, goes on at length about the concern that local governments will use the information to enforce obscure sex laws. I'm not sure this creepy guy with a twin bed and child molester-style glasses should be terribly concerned about intimacy with his girlfriend being taped, but whatever. Over 21K people have watched that video.

Sure, that's possible. But who really cares? We don't have any way of knowing what's real and what's not as it is, and we never did. The government has lied to us about international affairs from the beginning of its existence. All governments do. So you need to accept that and move on.

Possibility 3: To harrass old people

No, not a serious concern. But an extremely funny video.