Re: Jumping to conclusions
Maybe it was the timing of Digital Switchover compared to the quality of new LCD TVs and the age of old CRT sets?
In a country where DSO happened before ours, where people were happy with their old tubes and unimpressed by expensive shoddy early flat panels, they're more likely to just buy a cheapo add-on box and keep the telly.
With more recent DSO (like London), people will be more likely to give in a buy a new one.
I've just been through DSO and bought convertor set-top boxes because I loved the picture of my lounge CRT, and don't want to replace the kids' tellies. Only when the main set went ByeBye did I look again at new tellies, and got one (online for half the price of the local shop) that I'm delighted with (37" LED edge-lit). It was one of the few in the shop where the colours looked natural, standard def was well handled, the viewing angles were OK, etc).
Glad I didn't go bigger, you can start to see the imperfections if I move forwards in my chair... I got the size just right for me!