There has been a continuing lobby for changing the modulation for ATSC to COFDM instead, the way DVB-T is transmitted in Europe, and ISDB-T in Japan. However, the FCC has continued to assert that 8VSB is the better modulation for use in U.S digital television broadcasting. In 2000, it refused a petition for rulemaking requesting the change. Because of continued adoption of the 8VSB based ATSC standard in the US, a switch to CODFM is now unlikely.

In 2001, a technical report compiled by the CODFM Technical Group concluded that CODFM did not offer any significant advantages over 8VSB.

The debate over 8VSB vs CODFM modulation is still ongoing. Proponents of CODFM argue that it resists multipath far better than 8VSB. Early 8VSB DTV (digital television) recievers often had difficulty recieveing a signal in urban environments. However, newer 8VSB recievers are far better at dealing with multipath. Moreover, 8VSB modulation requires less power to transmit a signal the same distance. In less-populated areas, 8VSB often pulls ahead of CODFM because of this. In urban areas, however, CODFM still offers better reception than 8VSB.