Long before HDTV was seriously talked about as a driver for digital. We have some HD-dedicated channels (Charter) with some whacky reduced content. Can't imagine limiting my viewing to those channels or even bothering to surf them. Hypothetical since I don't have an HDTV. But I want to watch what I want to watch. If it was in HD, that would be great. But I would never change what I watched because of the lack or availability of HD.

I think that we need a way for competing cable companies to serve the same areas. Then true competition would limit down the packages to what you really wanted and reduce the prices as well. (And maybe when I call them to complain about bandwidth issues affecting the quality of what's presented on my TV, they would not use it as an opportunity to sell me a repairman visit.)

Satellite is not an effective competitor to cable.