Digital compression will allow television companies to squeeze more channels into the same bandwidth.

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As the technology of digital compression develops, the concept of the channel will become meaningless.

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Digital compression typically allows between eight and 12 channels to occupy the same capacity required by a single analogue channel.

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At the same time, advances in technology--better filters and digital compression--are allowing carriers to squeeze far more data onto each frequency.

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The costs of starting new television channels are falling, and will drop faster as digital compression packs more into the same transmission capacity.

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Lossy compression digital music files, such as MP3s, take up about 6 to 7 MB.

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Beyond issues of attribution and extraterritoriality, there is the simple reality that digital technology permits the compression of vast amounts of information into brief bursts of computer code.

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This packet of data (usually about four kilobytes of code) is then embedded within the file, and a digital watermark is inserted into the newly created space left behind by the compression process.

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