The End Of Free HDTV?

Endangered?

The Consumer Electronics Association recently commissioned a poll that found that fewer than 8 percent of US households use over-the-air broadcast as their sole means of receiving television programming, according to a posting by Geoffrey Morrison at The Crave blog at cnet.com.  This number has been descending, according to the CEA, since 2005.

It is the CEA's position that because fewer and fewer households are getting their TV from over-the-air (OTA), the wireless spectrum used for these broadcasts should be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

In other words, do away with free over-the-air broadcasts as we know it.

While it's true that most U.S. households use cable or satellite for the television signals, in most cases this is a choice to pay for these services.

Other families either cannot afford to pay for cable/satellite, or prefer the significantly higher picture quality available from over the air.

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