TCI Won't Carry CBS' 1080i - Insists on 720p Format
dailynews.yahoo.com
TCI rejects CBS high-definition plan
By Aaron Pressman
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Tele-Communications Inc., the second largest cable system in the United States, will refuse to carry new high-definition programming from CBS Corp. unless the network alters its chosen format, TCI Chairman John Malone said Tuesday.
Malone's threat endangered the fragile consensus between cable operators and the major broadcast networks over the coming transition to digital television and the introduction of high-definition programs, sports and movies.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were enraged that Malone would hinder the transition.
CBS has said it will broadcast new digital high-definition programs in a format known as 1080-interlaced. But Malone said TCI systems would not carry the shows unless the network switched to a format called 720-progressive.
"I'm not going to voluntarily do it," Malone told reporters at the National Cable Television Association conference in Atlanta. "It's not the wave of the future, it's a spectrum hog, it'll force many programmers off."
The format war could also affect General Electric Co.'s NBC network, which also opted for the 1080-interlaced format.
But Malone said negotiations with NBC were progressing. "They're thinking about it," he said.
Malone said negotiations were progressing well with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and News Corp Ltd.'s Fox, both of which have selected 720-progressive format for their high-definition shows.
The National Association of Broadcasters said it was "puzzled" by Malone's comment.
"It seems incomprehensible," the association said in a statement. "Given cable's track record for believability, we're not sure where the road to detente begins."
Malone's stand was equally unacceptable to Rep. Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana and chairman of the House Commerce
Committee's Communications subcommittee, a Tauzin spokesman said.
"After cajoling, prodding and finally mandating that broadcasters convert to digital, Congress is not going to allow cable to be a
roadblock to progress," spokesman Ken Johnson said.
Congress required broadcasters to convert to digital transmitting by 2006, beginning the process later this year. The technology will allow a station to broadcast a single finely detailed high-definition show or multiple ordinary shows.
Consumers will be able to use converter boxes to watch the digital shows on their current TV sets, but will have to purchase new and expensive digital sets to appreciate the full benefits of high-definition shows.
Malone said new cable television set-top boxes that TCI customers will use to watch high-definition programming will be technically capable of passing through the 1080-interlaced format. But TCI would carry 1080-interlaced programs only if Congress or the FCC required cable operators to do so, he said.
FCC Chairman William Kennard, in a speech delivered before Malone spoke to reporters, urged the cable and broadcast industries to reach a consensus on digital programming or face having the FCC mandate rules.
"We are going to give you a period of time to try and work these issues out, but we've all got to recognize that the clock is ticking," Kennard said.
The progressive format, used in computer monitors and favored by the high-tech industry, updates every line on a TV screen many times a second. Interlaced formats, used in today's conventional TV sets, update only every other line.
While experts disagree about the relative broadcast quality of the various formats, progressive formats use less space on cable systems. Malone said with new digital technology, TCI could send four channels of 720-progressive programs in the space used by one ordinary analog channel, but only a single 1080-interlaced show in all of the analog channel's space.
Malone said if the government required TCI to carry the 1080 interlaced high-definition signals, the system would have to drop
as many as 14 other cable channels.
"You cannot put 10 pounds of programming in a five-pound bag," Malone said. "I just don't see our government telling us that
we've got to drop lots of currently carried networks in order to accommodate a spectrum-inefficient transmission." |
