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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J Fieb who wrote (24705)	11/1/1997 5:43:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Brit's push digital TV..................................... scri.com TECHNOLOGY NEWS UK government vows to speed switch to digital TV The British government is examining ways of encouraging viewers to move rapidly into the era of multi-channel digital TV as it would free up existing broadcast frequencies which could eventually be sold off. The vacated analogue spectrum could one day be worth billions of pounds if sold off for commercial use by, for example, telecommunications companies, analysts say. But the switch to digital TV, which will begin in Britain in 1998, will take several years. Many industry experts have likened it to the migration from black and white to colour television in the 1970s. Satellite broadcaster BSkyB Plc , in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is the main shareholder, plans to launch a 200-channel satellite service into the UK early next spring. Cable companies including Cable & Wireless Communications Plc plan to go digital around the same time. A digital terrestrial service -- offering perhaps 40 channels but available through a conventional rooftop aerial -- will begin later next year. Viewers will need to spend at least 200 pounds ($320) to buy a digital decoder to receive digital services -- irrespective of if they are delivered by cable, satellite or aerial. U.S. Computer Firms To Join Japan Digital TV Study Microsoft, Intel and Compaq Computer will join a study group to set up a standard for Japanese digital satellite broadcasting.The study group under the Japanese Telecommunication Technology Council is comprised of representatives from Japanese broadcasting and consumer electronics firms and has studied three technological formats so far. The three US firms have proposed formats that would work better with computers and facilitate the convergence of TV and computer technologies. Japanese consumer electronics makers and broadcasters, on the other hand, are advocating technology similar to current analogue TV systems. Japan plans to introduce digital broadcasting satellite channels in 2000, when it launches the BS-4 broadcasting satellite.