Id like to shed some light on what might initially seem like a contradiction… How come cable companies don have to convert, but the broadcasters do?
Well what is required is that any broadcaster that uses the “air waves” for transmitting their signal, move to a digital format. Cable companies are broadcasting their signal over a wire. This signal doesn’t go through the “air” so technically, there is no “over the air” frequency being used. Federal mandates for them is a couple of years down the road. Incidentally, a good share of cable companies are already broadcasting in digital format. Again, because digital formatting is so efficient, they use those efficiencies to provide additional services such as pay-per-view and “on demand” programming. That box setting next to your set is doing all the work to make sure your TV gets the signal it needs to bring you their programming.
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