WASHINGTON -- The FCC on Friday unanimously rejected Sinclair Broadcasting's controversial effort to force the entire television industry -- from set-makers to TV stations -- to reconsider the two-year-old technical standard for digital broadcasting.
Sinclair argued that the current standard, now in use at 117 stations around the country, fails to deliver the crisp, clear pictures that broadcasters had been counting on when the industry began its digital migration. In rejecting Sinclair's petition, the FCC found that the fault lies not with the standard but in the TV set.
"We believe that Sinclair has done no more than to demonstrate a shortcoming of early DTV receiver(s)," the FCC said in its decision.
Bad news for some
That's not good news for the 10,000 people who actually bought those receivers. Despite a pricetag in excess of $3,000, the first generation of digital sets have difficulty picking up an over-the-air digital signal. And the sets can not be wired for cable because cablers, studios and TV set-makers are still squabbling over the rules covering copyright protection.
The FCC also noted that it would be a time-consuming and expensive task to reevaluate the entire digital transmission standard. The current standard, known as 8-VSB, was the result of 10 years of research and industry debate. Broadcasters estimate that the entire cost of developing the 8-VSB standard totaled more than $500 million.
Sinclair said Friday that it is still digesting the FCC's decision.
"We have not yet seen the actual language of the order and will refrain from making a detailed statement until we have had an opportunity to review it," said Sinclair's Mark Hyman, vice president of corporate relations.
European standard eyed
For the past two years, Sinclair has been pushing broadcasters to take a second look at the digital transmission standard used in Europe, referred to as COFDM. The European standard has several advantages over the current system, according to Sinclair, but above all others is its ability to penetrate walls.
That signal strength is prized by Sinclair because it plans to use its digital channel to offer subscription data services, in addition to regular TV programming. Sinclair envisions a new business in which computers with antennas will be able to pick up stock quotes, sports scores and other data for people sitting in their cubicles or driving in their cars.Although most of the broadcasting industry initially scoffed at Sinclair's talk of using their digital channels to enter the data business, many major station groups such as Belo and Granite are now taking a serious look at the possibilities.
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