The Day that TV Died
Today is the day that TV died… analog TV that is.
As of midnight tonight, televisions stations will be making the switch so that their broadcasts are now digital only. If you are getting your TV signal via rabbit ears, you will need a convertor box to convert the digital, hi-def signal back to analog (or buy a new HD TV). If you are a cable, satellite, or FiOS subscriber, you can continue to use standard TVs without the convertor.
The official DTV transition site is http://www.dtv.gov. Some questions and answers are posted in a Times article here.
To recognize the day that TV died, Henry Blodget has a great article that admits “Sorry, There's No Way To Save The TV Business”.
The traditional TV industry--cable companies, networks, and broadcasters--is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago:
In denial.
As with print-based media, Internet-based distribution generates only a tiny fraction of the revenue and profit that today's incumbent cable, broadcast, and satellite distribution models do. As Internet-based distribution gains steam, therefore, most TV industry incumbents will no longer be able to support their existing cost structures.
