The life of a TV set could be anywhere between five and thirty-five years. There's a heck of a lot of old TV sets out there still in service, some surprisingly old. Many people use old B&W portables as spare room or attic TVs.
Why the heck should consumers be forced to upgrade to get the same old broadcast garbage?
There are also a lot of TV viewers out there who don't watch a lot of TV. Their TV sets last a long time. They don't have cable. What will become of them?
Ironically, back in the 1950s, the choice of what color TV transmission protocol was determined on compatibility with existing B&W sets, even though there were far fewer sets out there.
I guess the selfish technocrats and greedy businesses just can't wait to get their mitts on the radio frequencies to play with.
It amazes me that the more cable channels they offer to me the less TV I watch. They just throw out utter junk, and get rid of the little good stuff they once had. It duplicates each other -- "Cheers" is broadcast and cablecast on numerous channels. And for something I pay and pay dearly for they throw in tons of commercials -- more than commercial TV does.
But they make a heck of a lot of money doing this.