Your question implies that only broadcasters will make money.

Yes, at least in Quebec, digital is a lot more expensive than analog.

I live in Montreal and my ONLY digital cable supplier is Videotron Digital cable!

See http://hubpages.com/hub/Videotron-Illico-Digital-Cable for my experience with their service.

What about the TV manufacturers? Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Acer, ASUS, etc...

What about the video camera makers - Sony, Canon, JVC, Panasonic, Jazz, Flip ultra HD, Kodak, etc...

In Canada we still have analog broadcasting. When I watch US programming on my TV I get about 2/3rds of the image! I'm missing chunks of the left and right side of the 16:9 frame. It's painfully obvious when I get supers that are cut off.

Is this a concerted effort by Big Brother to get us to spend money... revive the economy... ?

Or simply a way to squeeze more bandwidth on the limited number of frequencies we're stuck with?