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

To: DiViT who wrote (33494)	5/29/1998 12:25:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

17 companies on the DVD Forum Steering Committee, and a boatload of companies as members. You have to become a member in order to use the DVD (TM) logo.

To: DiViT who wrote (33494)	5/29/1998 12:29:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

FCC girds for digital-TV 'must-carry' review By George Leopold WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission will tackle the divisive issue of digital-TV "must-carry" rules this summer, and will complete the first phase of an effort to ensure cable set-top-box compatibility with digital-TV formats in early June. FCC commissioner Susan Ness told broadcasters on Wednesday that the agency will launch an inquiry "sometime this summer" on how cable operators will relay digital-TV broadcasts. Ness said the inquiry will address whether cable operators must pass through to subscribers all or part of the 19-Mbit/second digital signal, whether they also must offer broadcasters' new data services and what relief if any cable operators will receive if they run out of channel capacity. The "must-carry religious wars" of the 1980s, during which cable operators were required to carry network programming, must be avoided, Ness told broadcasters meeting here to discuss the transition to digital TV. She repeated earlier calls by FCC chairman William Kennard for the broadcast and cable industries to work out their differences on how cable companies will pass through to viewers digital-TV programming and potential new data services. Those talks were dealt a blow last month when Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) chairman John Malone said his company would not support the interlaced scanning formats favored by CBS and NBC. Malone also said TCI would "fight must-carry to the death." Hasty clarification TCI hastily clarified Malone's statement, saying it only favors progressive scanning. It remains unclear whether industry talks are making any progress. Some observers here said negotiations between cable companies and broadcasters on the must-carry issue are no more than "informal discussions," noting that the two industries meet to talk about a variety of issues all the time. Future progress in industry talks will likely drive the FCC's agenda for making rules on passing through digital-TV signals to cable subscribers. The debate is likely to come down to whether cable operators will be required to carry all digital formats. TCI president Leo Hindery told lawmakers in April that the company's digital converters "will be capable of passing through to HDTV televisions all HDTV formats, including the 720p and 1,080i formats," or the 720-line progressive and 1,080-line interlaced. Broadcasters are not convinced. "We will fight to the very end for digital must-carry," said a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters (Washington). The influential group is playing no role in industry discussions, he said, though sources said that the group is pressing the FCC to impose digital must-carry rules on the cable industry. Ness said the FCC wants cable operators to offer digital set-top boxes compatible with all digital-TV formats as a way to avoid "bottleneck providers" between broadcasters and viewers. To that end, the commission is expected to adopt a report and order on next-generation set-tops when it meets on June 11. The goal, Ness said, is the development and deployment of "broadcaster-friendly devices" that don't create bottlenecks in digital-TV transmission networks. More........... eet.com