- HDTV's Outlook Appears Murky
As cable operators roll out high-definition television throughout the U.S., a murky regulatory environment has them treading cautiously. Even though the Federal Communications Commission doesn't regulate how cable operators price or market HDTV, it has warned MSOs not to create any barriers to a quick digital-TV deployment. A partial result ......
- FCC Approves Digital Plug-And-Play Rules
WASHINGTON— The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously approved rules for digital cable plug-and-play interoperability between digital cable services and consumer electronics products. The decision came just in time for television manufacturers to begin plans for the production of 2004 HDTVs, which can now add digital-cable-ready capability. The ruling will eliminate ......
- Digital Cable Heads-Up
High-definition television's rollout has experienced many dips, turns and intrigue since it began in 1998 with broadcasts from TV networks and the first sets at retail. From negotiations, and battles, between the various industries involved in its development and with the help, and barriers placed, by government regulatory agencies, the ......
- Fla. Station Makes Odd Bid for HDTV
Washington— It could be the strangest carriage fight in America: A new TV station in Florida is seeking analog carriage on local cable systems, but high-definition TV carriage on direct-broadcast satellite carrier EchoStar Communications Corp. There's nothing Adelphia Communications Corp. and other cable systems in the area can do, because ......
- High-definition television as policy
failure.
Early in 1981 about a dozen Federal Communications Commission officials, including several commissioners and their assistants, filed into a darkened room in a building near Commission headquarters in Washington, DC, to witness the beginning of a revolution. We made up the invited audience for the very first American demonstration of ......
- Powell's Multicast Plan Concerns Willner
Broadcasters who view the Federal Communications Commission's new digital-TV transition proposal as a means of forcing cable systems to carry multiple DTV signals from a single TV station should expect resistance, Insight Communications Inc. CEO Michael Willner said Tuesday. Though he was generally supportive of the FCC plan backed by ......
- FCC OK Should Drive Digital Transition
Washington—When consumers are ready to purchase cable-ready digital-TV sets starting next spring, it just will be part of a bigger-picture move by the Federal Communications Commission. Last Wednesday, the FCC largely codified last December's compatibility agreement between top cable and consumer-electronics companies. In a unanimous vote, the agency laid the ......