I was thinking, why don't the chanels simply "switch" from SD to HD, instead of adding a seperate feed? That way they could have as much or as little HD as they wanted because there is no alternative feed? I really think that would satisfy some of the complaints that there is not enough HD content on an HD channel. This type of change wouldn't affect those subscribers with SDTV's at all either. I guess they do it this way to make more money, I don't know. It just seems like it would be simpler the other way.
Some people have equated the HD switch to the B/W to Color switch years ago; but back then they did it the simple way, one feed for all content.
Ahh, the B/W to Color switch. I was just a puppy when that happened, but I do remember. First, color programing was backward compatible, you didn't have to change a thing on your B/W set to watch it. Second, we didn't have to pay EXTRA to get the color content. Just buy the set and you got all that was available. Which was not much in the early days. From 1953 to 1966, the only network programming that was in color was on NBC. Local stations could produce their own color programming, like the news and local shows, but for network, it was NBC or nothing.
RCA was the parent company of NBC, and RCA held the crucial patents on color set technology. In fact, for many years, no matter what set brand you bought, chances were it had an RCA chassis inside. NBC aired programming specifically to sell RCA sets.
Walt Disney's World of Color, Bonanza, and The Tonight Show were specifically produced for optimum color rendition.
How many sets do you think RCA could have sold in those early days if the only thing in color on a show was the peacock?