In a little over six months our TV broadcasters are scheduled to cease using analog technology to broadcast their programming to their local communities. Thereafter their service will be broadcast entirely digitally.  That will bring to an end a 10+ year analog-to-digital transition that has cost the broadcasters a reputed $12bn and that has done nothing to further the interest of their broadcast TV service. In fact, contrary to the accepted norms of investing such a huge sum in a new service the broadcasters have in fact seen their share of TV homes as compared to cable and satellite decline steadily from 30% in 1998 when the DTV broadcast service was introduced to less than 11% today with the promise of dropping below 10% by 2009!

Local TV broadcasting appears to be heading fast to extinction yet that has not merited discussion within the broadcasting industry nor at the FCC or in Congress.

Local TV dealers have declined to demonstrate the service in their stores during the past ten years; a serious omission that has not seen public discussion.

Also, the FCC, which has for a dozen years reported on the competition between cable and satellite in serving TV homes and by deduction reported on the steady decline in the percentage of homes that depend on their local TV broadcast service as opposed to subscribing to cable or satellite, stopped reporting that this year!

Finally, the erosion of TV homes that rely on the broadcasters' service did not merit discussion at the recent NAB 2008 convention!

It seems reasonable to ask - do we have a conspiracy of silence on this important subject?

Do you think we can go much longer without FreeDTVPlusTM?