This morn­ing I read again about TV sta­tions auc­tion­ing old ana­log broad­cast spec­trum “when they go to dig­i­tal before the end of the decade.” This is painful to read because it’s not going to hap­pen. Of course the orig­i­nal FCC dead­line of 2006 for the NTSC to HDTV switch has been sort-of extended to 2009. But even that is not likely. A quick sur­vey of the 21-29″ tele­vi­sion sets being sold at Best Buy today con­firms that none of them can receive HDTV broad­cast sig­nals. Doesn’t this seem a lit­tle silly to you if the “switch” is going to hap­pen in just a cou­ple of years? A good tele­vi­sion set is a 10-15 year invest­ment. If the FCC wants to make the dig­i­tal switch in the next quarter-century, they need to pres­sure for laws about what kind of TV sets can be sold. And move the dead­line to 2025.