Reading all of this takes me back to 2002 when I interned at a local TV station and first heard of the digital changeover. It's funny thinking back because at the time the station was going through growing pains trying to switch everything over to digital (and I was scared to death that my TV wasn't going to work anymore). The tech guys there all hated it because basically ALL of the current hardware had to be replaced in order to send a digital signal and that meant more work for them and more expense for the station all because of government mandates. To put it into perspective, at the time I was there the station only owned 1 digital tape editing machine compared to at least 20 Beta machines, and those puppies were not interchangable. Editing machines were only the beginning of the cost for a station to meet their federally mandated deadlines.
I agree that this is like the government meddling, and dictating what we will watch, and I don't like it, but thanks to the FCC the govt. currently has its hands in everything from your Television to your clock radio. Almost all electronic equipment has to be approved by the FCC in order to ensure that it won't cause interference, etc, etc, etc.