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Thanks to government subsidy, which was a $40 prepaid debit card, the boxes only cost $0-20 out of pocket. Even without that card you can find these boxes for $40-60, so about half the price as UK converter boxes.

Here's the rest of the story which editors did not include for some reason:

"For station owners in the UHF band the transition went flawlessly, however VHF station owners (channels 2-13) are still receiving complaints from viewers. In most instances the FCC has allowed VHF channels to increase their power levels 6-7 times higher than what they were just one year ago. In other cases VHF owners are experimenting with low-power repeaters to fill-in reception gaps.

"However ATSC-DTV's existence may be shorter than expected. The US FCC is meeting to discuss ways to eliminate free over-the-air television completely, in order to make room for more cellphone frequencies (FCC Wastes No Time on Television Spectrum Reallocation) : http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2010/06/articles/television/fcc-wastes-no-time-on-television-spectrum-reallocation/ "

A very interesting point, it would seem that the momentum of the cable and mobile industries have overtaken the fragmented broadcast TV businesses. See http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2010/03/articles/broadband-report/fcc-national-broadband-plan-what-it-suggests-for-tv-broadcasters-spectrum/ for a more detailed explanation of how the FCC may squeeze the spectrum of broadcast TV, further marginalizing the whole idea. The article says that only 15% of Americans get their TV OTA, hardly a substantial political force. Depending on their progress you may be able to project when "over the air" TV goes off the air. My estimate would be 2020.

P.S. Here's the rest of the story I submitted:

"For station owners in the UHF band the transition went flawlessly, however VHF station owners (channels 2-13) are still receiving complaints from viewers. In most instances the FCC has allowed VHF channels to increase their power levels 6-7 times higher than what they were just one year ago. In other cases VHF owners are experimenting with low-power repeaters to fill-in reception gaps.

"However ATSC-DTV's existence may be shorter than expected. The US FCC is meeting to discuss ways to eliminate free over-the-air television completely, in order to make room for more cellphone frequencies : http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2010/06/articles/television/fcc-wastes-no-time-on-television-spectrum-reallocation/ (FCC Wastes No Time on Television Spectrum Reallocation)

P.S. Here's the rest of the story which editors did not include for some reason?

"For station owners in the UHF band the transition went flawlessly, however VHF station owners (channels 2-13) are still receiving complaints from viewers. In most instances the FCC has allowed VHF channels to increase their power levels 6-7 times higher than what they were just one year ago. In other cases VHF owners are experimenting with low-power repeaters to fill-in reception gaps.

"However ATSC-DTV's existence may be shorter than expected. The US FCC is meeting to discuss ways to eliminate free over-the-air television completely, in order to make room for more cellphone frequencies : http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2010/06/articles/television/fcc-wastes-no-time-on-television-spectrum-reallocation/ (FCC Wastes No Time on Television Spectrum Reallocation)"

Sorry wrong link. Here is the correct link. The table is linked in the page. PDF warning.

They want to SELL spectrum that'd be used for "free" service? That doesn't make sense.

It's also questionable just what they consider "not a major source of interferrence".

Some people may go to considerable trouble to pick up weak DTV signals. Signals that are weak could not be easily detected by networking gear that didn't have a large antenna attached.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is well known for ignoring community input regarding such things as media consolidation. Just when you think think current administration can't get away with anything more, it happens... (look for things stuffed into the bailout bill for instance).

There's some behind the scenes activity to try and head off actions the next administration might take to respond to the public. Here's an example.

What I hear from people who should know is that the original article is mistaken. This report from David Oxenford seems pretty clear :

Settlement Reached on Certain Aspects of Section 115 Royalty - Contrary to Press Reports, This Has Nothing to Do With Internet Radio Royalty Dispute

Great, so you do that. You also have to print any other candidate's letter to the editor.

You also seem to not understand the "equal airtime" clause. Such one-sided coverage has resulted in lawsuits, and you wouldn't own your papers/stations very long. (Don't forget, all broadcast stations are under revocable and expiring charters)

Here's some links to help you understand how binding the equal time laws are. Then note that I'm not advocating changing any of this, except making the purchase of time illegal, because we're removing campaign funding - the entire premise of this thread.

So your strawman argument falls flat on almost every count except for this: yes, media can slant coverage they are required to provide. But, the core issue is whatever coverage they provide must be provided for all, and thus more coverage can only help the "smaller" individuals by making them known.

The problem is the RIAA is already trying to kill them too. They have convinced the Copyright Royalty Board to increase the royalties for entities that stream and/or distribute music online, they have removed the lower royalties that were available to small businesses. Worst of all they have imposed a $500 fee "per channel" for all broadcasters. So a service like last.fm which provides a different lineup of music to each user might have each individual user stream defined as a "Channel" and be forced to pay $500 per user based on this model.

Many people are calling this the end of Online Commercial Broadcasts.

You can read more about this here:
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/archives/internet- radio-copyright-royalty-board-releases-decision-ra tes-are-going-up-significantly.html