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

To: Larry Brew who wrote (30593)	3/9/1998 2:01:00 PM
From: Don Dorsey	Respond to of 50808

Japan's broadcasters air complaints about terrestrial digital TV By Yoshiko Hara TOKYO -- Gloomily predicting the impact of digital terrestrial television on its business, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters fought this week against government efforts to install the technology in Japan. Earlier in the week the association estimated that it would cost member companies some $5.3 billion to begin digital terrestrial broadcasting. In calculating that investment, the association assumed that key stations in large cities would begin digital broadcasting in 2000 and that digitalization down to the smallest stations would be completed by 2013. Major broadcasters would see profits plunge, the association concluded, while small stations would see them disappear. The ratio of ordinary profit to sales for the major broadcasters would be reduced to about 2 percent from today's 9 percent average, the association forecast. Small-scale broadcasters, it said, would sink into the red and remain there. Despite its gloomy outlook, an association spokesman insisted, the projection was designed to provide neutral, objective data for discussion. It concluded that the investment would not be recouped by any business, including new ones like multichannel service. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is asking related industry to be ready for the start of both digital-TV broadcasting using a broadcast satellite and terrestrial TV broadcasting around the year 2000. The consensus in Japan is that digital TV broadcasting, mainly in HDTV, will begin about 2000, using a newly launched broadcast satellite. Broadcasters don't reject the terrestrial digital-TV service, said a leading broadcast executive, but timing is bad. He said that they don't want to invest simultaneously in both broadcast-satellite and terrestrial efforts. Katsuji Ebisawa, president of Japan Broadcasting Corp., also said that investing in a broadcast-satellite digital-broadcasting service should be established first. Later, he said, digital terrestrial could have its turn.