Europe Leads the Way in Digital TV! ????

Stephanie Condon in an article at CNet http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10167007-38.html?tag=nl.e703 saw a press release where European Union  touted that it was leading the way in worldwide digital conversion - again this is a sample of how Europe plays fast and loose by redefining what it means to go digital.

 

Luxembourg switched! Yea, a nation that is 31 x 51 miles in length where a SINGLE TV station in the middle can reach everyone - but it only took them 8 years to convert - is really leading the way. There are  only 480,000 or so people in the whole nation - that number of people is just 1/3 of the number in the Portland Oregon area.

 

And on a continent where most people had only a single TV set, if that, in the US most people that at LEAST 2 and usually 3 sets - so more equipment is needed and more MONEY is needed to cover the same number of people.

 

As a comparison to cover the same amount of ground as covered by that SINGLE TV station in Luxembourg would would take 18,000 different switchovers in the USA. Europe - conveniently as always - forgets the scale of the problems that the USA faces in almost every facet of life - both modern and historical.

 

Most of the European nations are the same size as some of our counties - and most of our states are larger than the nations in Europe.

 

TV going digital is going is like the old radio stations going from AM to FM - you will lose 30% of the distance that you could transmit on the AM band going FM at the same power rating - I bet all the transmitters use more power and the range is likely still 10% less than analog. I saw this first hand in aircraft radios - 10 watts in the AM band could let you talk 50 miles while 10 watts in FM got you barely 15.

 

Maybe this is a subtle brilliant move to force everyone to cable or satellite?