Goodbye analog TV

Written by Kelsey Brookes Monday, 15 June 2009 23:07

As the U.S. enters the new era of DTV and the last analog sets without set-top boxes tune in only to static, the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes the passing of an unwelcome corollary to broadcast media: DRM.

Although broadcasters and movie studios have tried for years to make the 'Broadcast Flag' a part of the DTV spec, disorganisation, greed and consumer revolt have led us to the point where DTV is here but there is no mandate for the Broadcast Flag.

In essence, the Broadcast Flag was meant to allow producers and broadcasters to tell your hardware whether it was authorised to play specific media. Broadcasters could, at the flick of a virtual switch, tell your home-theatre devices to not play or record any content under their control.

Fortunately for consumers, the scaremongering generated by broadcast media over the last few years has fallen on mostly deaf ears. Even Viacom's threat to not produce HD shows after 2003 if the Broadcast Flag was not honoured proved an empty one, as the EFF article shows:

It's six years later and these threats have all fallen flat. This week, CBS will broadcast dozens of popular programs, like CSI, Without a Trace, Survivor, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, in high definition via over-the-air broadcast. So will all the other major networks. Digital TV also continues to feature popular movies with no DRM.

Go to the EFF website for the full article.