Well, it’s February 17, 2009—Digital Day. Today’s supposed to be the day that full-power television broadcasts switch from analog to digital, and any TV without the ability to decode a digital signal become static-and-white-noise generators. At least, that was the plan before last-minute furor over the supposed unreadiness of many households led Congress to delay the switch until June 12. An article in yesterday’s USA Today (would that be USA Yesterday?) has details on the current state of the coupon program that is supposed to lessen the financial burden of buying a converter box. In short, it appears there are 4 million homes that would be without TV, and the backlog for coupons could be as long as two months (or as short as two weeks if new funding comes through).

Many stations have already gone to digital broadcast, and others are seeking to stick to the schedule they’ve been following. You’ll read more about this in a couple of weeks when the March issue of CRM hits desks and desktops. You’ll also read that, as of that writing, the delay measure had stalled and appeared to be on its way to defeat. What I’m saying is, it’s not my fault.

It’s easy to lay blame. In fact, blame has been laid at the feet of any number of groups: government is the easiest target, though it’s also a fair argument that consumers are at fault for ordering coupons they didn’t need and/or failing to act until the last minute. I’m inclined to blame inertia, without targeting any particular group.

In a former life, I reported on consumer electronics and had a focus on television issues, so I’m used to hearing about this. Back in the late 1990s, the plan was to have digital conversion by 2006, but industry opinion was that it probably wouldn’t be fully accomplished until 2060. Broadcasters didn’t want to switch to digital because so few viewers had digital-capable sets, but manufacturers didn’t want to retool for digital sets because there was nothing for people to watch. Digital TVs were mad expensive—far more so than they are now—and most were manufactured without a digital decoder. Those industry forces needed a lot of convincing to get moving toward digital, and once they were moving they didn’t want to stop. Inertia, QED.

Consumers were initially dazzled by the possibilities of digital TV (especially high-definition), both in terms of picture quality and the other content that could be carried on the digital broadcast.  But digital sets and converters (most early DTVs didn’t have a digital decoder built in) were mad expensive, and extra content still hasn’t materialized to large extent. There was no reason for consumers to switch, and most didn’t even know what they needed to get digital—it was a few years before cable broadcasters provided digital signal—so they did nothing. Inertia, QED.

Anyway, that’s my take, and I hope the background information is useful to you. If you’re still uncertain, here’s the deal: If you get your TV signal from a cable box or the phone company, you have DTV. If you get it from a satellite dish or an antenna, then you probably don’t. But if you own a digital TV that has its own decoder (as all currently-manufactured ones do) or you use a set-top box to decode the signal, you’re good to go, no matter the source. If the whole issue is just too annoying, then protest by watching TV on your computer. Or go read a book.