Will the analog shutoff affect you?
It's estimated that 20 million households rely solely on free OTA television, the rest of Americans have either cable or satellite. The digital transition will only affect people who don't have cable or satellite right, or will it? I wonder how many Americans have cable TV, but don't use a STB or how many satellite subscribers don't pay extra for locals. If you consider the expensive bandwidth the analog SD (38Mbps) channels take up on cable networks, it would be surprising if the cable companies will want to continue to carry the analog versions. That is assuming that the local affiliates allow them to convert the digital feeds to analog. Most of this has not been decided and is already starting to spark up heated debates between cable companies and members of the NAB. Would the cable companies force all their customers to subscribe to digital cable? Will the government-subsidized STBs be available to cable and DBS subscribers? This is starting to look like it's going to affect more people than just those who rely solely on free OTA TV.
At this point you are either saying wow or this won't effect me, but have you thought about portable TVs, or TVs in your car or RV, the TV in the garage or the one you take to tailgate? I would think that everyone who loves HD is anxiously waiting for the analog shutoff, but there are many questions to answer in the next three years.
