Senate Panel Sets Date for Digital TV Deadline
After years of waffling on a deadline that will force TV manufacturers, broadcasters, and regular folks to abandon analog television and embrace digital, a date has finally been set. And that day will be April 7, 2009. Arbitrary technology-deployment deadlines being what they are, it's almost absurd to ask whether this deadline will be as firm as its creators pretend. But in any case, three and a half years ought to be plenty of time for most consumers to run out and buy a new TV set. After all, the cost of HDTV hardware has dropped significantly in the past two years, and manufacturing has finally gathered enough momentum for us to expect dirt-cheap mid-size plasma and LCD sets by the time anyone has to worry about losing their analog signal. By that time, most old-school analog tube sets will probably have self-destructed anyway.
