The switchoff of analogue TV has been long coming,  but with digital spectrum awash in home-shopping channels and the ‘digital dividend’ falling short of mobile expectations, is it really the success we were led to believe it would be?

When all the promised benefits of digital TV were being bandied about a decade ago, I don’t recall anybody arguing that this major transition was necessary just so Australians could be exposed to an avalanche of television shopping channels — but that’s exactly where we are as we begin our first day in nearly 60 years without an analogue TV broadcast being on the air.