Feds to Require Digital Receivers In All New TVs?

jonerik writes "According to this article in USA Today, the FCC is expected next week to require all new TV sets to include digital receivers by 2006. TV manufacturers are balking at the requirement, which they say would increase the price of new TVs by about $200. The National Association of Broadcasters counters that their study shows that the price increase would be half that, and would decrease to about $15 by 2006. The government, eager to sell off the TV broadcast spectrum to wireless carriers, is between a rock and a hard place, with sales of HDTVs slower than expected, broadcasters and cable systems not exactly jumping at the bit to take on the cost of reconfiguring for digital broadcasts, and a public that seems pretty satisfied with traditional analog TVs."

Comments

High Def

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is not the quality of the picture, it's the quality of the programming. That's why no one cares.

If you think that's bad

[tmark]

Just imagine the hullabaloo to be had here when the Feds require all TVs to ship with WinCE and/or MSN ...

Eh?

[FyRE666]

I'm sorry, but what the f*** does this have to do with the government?! Isn't it their job to manage the country, not dictate the direction of consumer electronics (although Sntr Disney and his puppeteers would indicate otherwise)...