written by MrRiplEy:
The dawn of digital television was filled with promises. The consumers were to get better tv, richer in colors and abundant in variety at no cost.
The reality was different. As many naysayers already envisioned the beginning of the transmissions posed more problems than benefits. The early adopters soon found out that the expensive receivers they purchased were in fact buggy and needed replacing way before even half of the population had bought theirs. Despite the promises the prices of the digital receivers never went down. Instead they became packed with more functionality, such as harddrives for recording.
Many questioned the viability of the promises on improved content. We were promised more channels, better programs and a higher image quality to top it off. The reality proved a lot different: Same general channels with _degraded_ image quality due to lossy compression used on the channels. Those who had a flawless analog image quality were disappointed. Those living in rural areas found often some improvement image wise. As suspected the content provided did not improve one bit. Granted there are now more channels. We got one 24h music channel which serves mainly as an advertisement for the ever so loved recording industry. We got informational channels which provide an interesting documentary about ONCE A WEEK. We got the first national adult tv-channel which uses a loophole in legislation in order to transmit an hour of hardcore porn 4 days a week for free.
But most importantly now that the transmission costs lowered and the new digital technology advanced we got paid channels. Paid channels with little to none interest in them. Sports. F1 Grand Prix. Anyone wanting those could aswell buy satellite for 10x the content. But that's not all folks..
A plague of modern tv was introduced: MOBILE GAMING. Anyone ever seen one? It goes like this: Every day, several hours per day, tv-channels run mobile games and chat on screen. People can send SMS messages in order to chat or play the retarded games for (and this is the best part) $0.7 - $1 a message. That's right, imagine playing a puzzle game with 20 other players and paying $1 per move. Sounds impossible right?
Wrong. The games are filled with idiots either wanting to see their name on the tv-screen or simply underage children paying on their parents account. Yep, most 10-year old kids in Finland have their own cellular phones paid by parents these days.
Conclusion:
Digital television was lobbyed to the legislators by the media companies. Much as the recent copyright law it directly violates the benefits of the consumer and plays directly to the pocket of the media industry. To the consumers the digital tv brought only _mandatory_ cost as everyone is now forced to purchase either a new tv-set or at least a digital receiver. Well, or stop watching tv completely. At the same time the media content did not improve and the amount of mobile tv games skyrocketed. The media industry 1 consumer 0.
Post script:
With the inclusion of the new digital rights law, it is suspected by the same naysayers that DRM will soon be introduced to normal tv. Already in the US legislation is being pushed to both limit viewing of any digital broadcast under a certain timeperiod and include the same limitation to analog devices.
That's right, if the MPAA/RIAA a-holes
get their way through soon every digital and analog device sold in the united states will have a mandatory DRM functionality which for example deletes any tv-show taped on a vcr if a time limit set by content holder is exceeded. The same legislation aims to end most of TIVO functionality, especially deleting adverts. Some shows will also be set with 'limited view' flag meaning you can only delay viewing the recording up to 40 minutes. Permanent storing will be denied.
