Will Your TV Still Work On February 17, 2009?

Although a high percentage of the US population supposedly knows about the shift to digital broadcasting, and how it affects them, a surprising number of people are in the dark.

Huh? Are you one of those folks? Well, it's not surprising - private enterprise has been given the primary responsibility for informing the public about a change that was legislated starting in 1996. Basically, all those stations broadcasting using analog signals must cease broadcasting in analog by February 17, 2009.

So, who cares? Well, if your TV set is not capable of receiving a digital signal...it won't work.

So you might want to explore your situation and options. According to the government, your options are:
- Get cable
- Buy a digital converter so your existing set can read the digital signal
- Buy a new TV

Funny, all these require an outlay of cash on the part of the consumer - but since something like 60% of all households have cable, this won't affect the majority of folks. If you have rabbit ears on your set, you're in trouble, if not, you have some research to do.

Maybe you are now asking yourself why this is happening. If so, consider that freeing up the spectrum TV used to be broadcast on opens up that spectrum for other ventures...look back to the posts on the spectrum auction and the players involved.