Digital is not only a better picture...

Change is hardly a new thing where high technology is concerned:

AM radios gave way to FM, tubes gave way to transistors and then integrated circuits and now FM is starting to be replaced by digital radio such as XM and Sirius radio.

Black and white TV's gave way to color TV's and now HDTV's.

Phonographs, eight tracks and reel to reel systems have been replaced by cassette and then CD in the 80's and now SACD in the 21st century.

VHS has been replaced by DVD and soon DVD will be replaced by "blue ray" DVD's.

HDTV offers a number of benefits to society beyond the obvious improvement in image resolution and signal quality it provides.

TV on the Internet will beat ALL.

First it will offer the opportunity for increased competition to cable and satellite systems.

With digital quality on Internet broadcasting being every bit as good as it is from satellite and cable systems and with digital multicasting meaning that a wider variety of programming is possible, this makes it harder for cable and satellite operators to convince persons to buy their services and thus acts to keep prices down on CATV and satellite systems.

A wider variety of programming being available means that it is possible for a wider diversity of opinions to be heard as well. This serves the public interest and blunts the efforts of the Rupert Murdochs and Time Warners of the world to try to control public opinion by controlling the media.

It will also be easier because digital compression means you can fit more channels into the same bandwidth than you could with an old fashioned uncompressed analog system, much as happened with the cellular industry switch to digital allowing increased calling capacities.

This will mean a decrease of the concentration of media in the hands of a few corporate moguls and an increase in the power of regular people to express themselves via television.

But it will mostly mean the dawn of a new ERA.
The Era of the REAL Interactive TV.
No mean can compete on that with the Internet.
And if the goal of real communication is the expression of oneself, TV on the Internet is the ONLY future of Communication.