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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary Wisdom who wrote (9062)	10/31/1998 8:36:00 PM
From: MileHigh	Respond to of 93625

The sooner the better.. ========================= Saturday October 31, 1:50 am Eastern Time Networks see early digital TV as costly test By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28 (Reuters) - The nation's television networks begin airing new digital programs next week but with few digital TVs in American homes, many broadcasters say their initial efforts are little more than expensive test-marketing. As first steps, ABC, CBS and NBC plan a mix of digital broadcasts of live sports, feature films, specials and some top-rated shows to lead viewers into this new world that merges computer and TV technology. The networks hope for big rewards down the road since digital TV uses the same language as computers and will eventually allow TV sets to be used for Internet browsing, shopping and videoconferencing. But the most immediate impact of digital TV -- the first wave of which is known as High Definition Television (HDTV) -- is that it is meant to offer clearer pictures and crisper sound, much as audio CDs boosted the quality of recorded music when in the mid-1980s. ''The focus, frankly at the moment, is to deliver a single stream of high quality programming ... give HDTV a fair market test, as we committed to do, then wait and see what happens,'' said Preston Davis, president of broadcast operations and engineering at the ABC TV network. Network caution stems from the paucity of digital sets owned by Americans and the small number of stations broadcasting digital signals. Starting next month, just over 20 TV stations in 10 of the United States' largest cities will be ready to transmit digital programs because outfitting them is expensive. Outfitting just one station can cost up to $9 million for new digital encoders and decoders, transmitters and other equipment, one industry expert said. Even worse, industry experts say, there are at most a few hundred digital TVs operating in the United States, most of those in retail stores or other sites to promote the new format. ''There's less than 100 out there as far as we can see, and for the most part they are being put in places that have large numbers of people,'' said Neil Stein, executive producer for Harris Corp.'s Oct. 29 digital broadcast of the space shuttle launch carrying former Senator John Glenn. The sets themselves are expensive at $7,000 to $15,000, meaning it could be years before consumers warm up to them. Backers of HDTV are trying to promote the new standard. Harris, a maker of equipment used in broadcasting digital TV, is setting up viewer sites for the Glenn launch at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington and the Broadcast Museum in Chicago. For their part, the networks will begin airing HDTV broadcasts in earnest on Nov. 1, when ABC shows the live action version of ''101 Dalmations'', starring Glenn Close, as a Sunday night installment of the ''Wonderful World of Disney.'' CBS will broadcast the Glenn launch in HDTV on eight stations followed by a Nov. 8 broadcast of a Buffalo Bills-New York Jets football game and a Nov. 18 episode of hospital drama ''Chicago Hope.'' On Nov. 1, four NBC stations will broadcast their entire 24-hour lineup in digital and analog signals. This spring NBC's top-rated ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' will begin digital broadcasts, and the network plans digital versions of movies ''Men In Black'' in 1999 and ''Titanic'' in 2000. The Fox network will have four stations online for HDTV programs in November. The much smaller WB and UPN networks have yet to formulate concrete plans for digital programs.