said by qworster: HDTV spectrum is so poorly allotted that on the average, 25% of it is vacant ("white space"). Even in NYC, the most spectrum congested place in the entire world, the amount of white space is almost 20% As an example, there are ONLY 29 HDTV stations on channels 5 and six in the entire United States! Compare this to about 200 NTSC ones there now and you can see that vast areas of the USA will have channels 5 and 6 wide open after 2/2009!
You're right that it's poorly allotted but that's because there shouldn't be any digital television stations on 5 and 6. Also channels 14 through 20 are shared (with public safety) spectrum in places like NYC and channel 37 is reserved for non-TV use. If these devices were only for use on channels 5 and 6 there wouldn't be many complaints from broadcasters about them but good luck getting through the noise.
