Does anybody watch UHF television? It's known more for its snow than its content. Today 88% of homes have satellite or cable; antennas are anachronisms. Even the other 12% generally stick to VHP, channels 2 to 13. Yet UHF squats on immensely valuable broadcast spectrum. Auctioned off for better uses, like cell phone calls, high-speed wireless links or the next Wi-Fi, the UHF band might be worth $100 billion. Both VHP and UHF airwaves were supposed to be returned to the public in 2006, a deadline Congress set six years ago when it gave existing TV stations some new slices of spectrum for use in digital broadcasts. But a massive loophole slipped into the bill. Unless 91 million American homes could receive the new over-the-air digital programming, the broadcasters could keep using the analog spectrum indefinitely. Today, two years from the ostensible deadline, the number of digitally equipped over-the-air receivers stands at around 1 million.
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