The end of free television

Once again, stupid American have let a freedom slip away....I do not hear the conversation about the switch to digital refer to it as a money making scheme but that is exactly what it is. The converter box is between 40-60 dollars, even 20 for the very poor and then now we see that unless you have an expensive antenna (which I do not) you get very few channels, not even all the basic ones-I cannot get CBS at all. I do not watch a lot of TV, but that isn't the issue.
What is the issue is the end of free TV, which was meant to initially educate the public at best (PBS in the 60's especially), when it became affordable in the late 50's, but really became the exploited terrain of advertisers (it was around before then, back to the 40's , but only for the wealthy. For instance a TV in 1949 was about $250.) So who was the first to insist you change to digital or not see them? PBS. You had to have a converter box in November of 2008, 4 months before the originally change (Feb.).
Smarter minds than the techno ignorant elderly (who are being left behind in this process) will fight to keep things on the internet free, so the greedy will have to try harder to say they are making our lives better by removing our freedoms for their profit.