America scammed out of new TV stations

I can already tell digital TV is going to be a big bust thanks to the reception problems, and now it turns out the new medium has other issues I never even saw coming.

When the transition is complete, every station gets several (possibly 4 or more) extra channels. That's what this 19.2 and 48.4 business is all about. So a station could broadcast 4 different things at the same time.

I thought this might be the one saving grace for digital TV. Who wouldn't want to be able to receive 4 times as many stations over the air?

But it turns out that this was a massive missed opportunity. The FCC could have awarded this extra bandwidth to community groups, local governments, libraries, schools, labor unions, or even small commercial broadcasters. But instead it went to the licensees of the main stations!

All of it. Every single bit of it.

I studied broadcasting in college, and one of the first things I learned was that the airwaves are public property. It gets licensed to private broadcasters, but they have to operate in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity." (Every broadcasting student in America has to be keenly familiar with that phrase.) The FCC is also supposed to guarantee a diversity of voices. Americans of all backgrounds are supposed to get a voice - because the airwaves are owned by Americans of all backgrounds.

But the FCC hasn't provided that the bonus bandwidth that was literally given to major broadcasters for free carry any public service obligations like educational or community programs. It's basically a giveaway for the same type of crap that fills the main channels.

When digital TV was being worked out in the '90s, these big broadcasters promised to use the extra channels for educational programs and up-to-date news. But this has turned out to be a lie.

The fact that thousands of extra TV channels are being opened up without anyone being able to apply for them except existing broadcasters is kept hidden from the public - because the big broadcasters don't want any scrutiny over whether or not they deserve these channels.

It's a missed opportunity for damn sure! But the situation may actually be even worse than it appears. Does any powerful corporate broadcaster really need more channels even if it's not at the expense of everyone else? The corporate media exerts enough influence as it is, and is the country improving because of it? Contrast America's quality of life now versus before the corporate giveaways of the '90s, and it's not even close.

What the digital transition really means isn't 6 extra Big Bird channels like everyone hoped but likely more channels full of infomercials, talk shows about "kids out of control!!!", home shopping, conservative propaganda, and other gibberish.

(Source: http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/06/11/grand-theft-digital-how-corporate-broadcasters-will-hijack-digital-tv)