Technology, Television, and Competition: the Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A

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Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information

Technology, Television, and Competition

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the advanced industrial countries considered replacing the existing analog television infrastructure with a new digital one. A key common feature to the debates over digital TV (DTV) in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan was the eventual victory of the ideas of digitalism (the superiority of everything digital over everything analog) and of digital convergence (the merging of computing, telecommunications, and broadcasting infrastructures made possible by digi- talization) in public debates over standards. Jeffrey Hart’s book shows how nationalism and regionalism combined with digitalism to produce three different and incompatible DTV standards in the three regions, an outcome which has led to missed oppor- tunities in developing the new technologies. Hart’s bookcon- tributes to our understanding of relations between business and government, and of competition between the world’s great economic powers.

  is Professor of Political Science at Indiana Uni- versity, Bloomington. His publications include The New Inter- national Economic Order (1983), Rival Capitalists (1992), Global- ization and Governance (1999), Managing New Industry Creation (2001), and The Politics of International Economic Relations (2003).

Technology, Television, and Competition The Politics of Digital TV

Jeffrey A. Hart

          The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

   The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarc´on13, 28014 Madrid, Spain DockHouse, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org

C Jeffrey A. Hart 2004

This bookis in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2004

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Plantin 10/12 pt System LATEX2ε [TB]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hart, Jeffrey A. Technology, television, and competition : HDTV and digital TV in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan / by Jeffrey A. Hart. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 82624 1 1. High definition television – United States. 2. High definition television – Government policy – United States. 3. High definition television – Europe. 4. High definition television – Government policy – Europe. 5. High definition television – Japan. 6. High definition television – Government policy – Japan. 7. Competition, International. I. Title HE8700.74.U6H37 2003 384.55–dc21 2003053194

ISBN 0 521 82624 1 hardback

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this bookare correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

To my wife Joan

Contents

Preface page ix Acknowledgments x List of acronyms xi

1 Introduction 1 2 The institutional setting for advanced TV 17 3 Digital convergence: consumer electronics 60 4 HDTV in Japan 84 5 HDTV in the United States 100 6 HDTV in Europe 118 7 Digital television in the United States 150 8 Digital television in Europe and Japan 181 9 Examples of global standards 207 10 Conclusions 221

Index 233

vii

Preface

High deﬁnition television (HDTV) became a contentious issue in Amer- ican politics after the European Community rejected a bid in 1986 by the Japanese national broadcasting company, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), to have its HDTV production method adopted as an international standard. The US government supported the Japanese effort initially, but after the European rejection many people in the United States began to question that support. For some, the Japanese HDTV initiative raised concerns about the relative decline in US competitiveness, even in high technology industries, and the need to respond more effectively to the in- creased competition from Japan and Western Europe. For others, HDTV was important because it might affect a wide range of industries – broadcasting, ﬁlm, video, consumer electronics, computers, and telecommunications – and therefore needed to be considered more carefully before buying into the Japanese approach. As a result, the United States began a process to choose a standard for advanced TV that tookuntil April 1997 to reach its conclusion. The US choice of a digital television (DTV) standard forced both Japan and Europe to reexamine their earlier decisions on HDTV. This bookis about the forces behind these events.

Acknowledgments

The research for this bookwas supported by grants and contracts from the Ofﬁce of Technology Assessment of the US Congress, Motorola, Inc.; the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy; the Elec- tronic Industries Association; the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences; the Advanced Research Projects Administration of the Depart- ment of Defense; the Technology Transfer Institute; the College of Arts and Sciences of Indiana University; the West European Studies Depart- ment of Indiana University; the Alfred Sloan Foundation; and Stanford Resources, Inc. I would like to thank the following individuals for their help and encouragement: Fran¸cois Bar, Michael Borrus, Joel Brinkley, Joseph Castellano, Alan Cawson, Stephen Cohen, Dale Cripps, Warren Davis, Joseph Donahue, Hernan Galperin, Darcy Gerbarg, Larry Irving, Greg Kasza, Hans Kleinsteuber, Ellis Krauss, Stefanie Lenway, Junji Matsuzaki, David Mentley, J¨orgMeyer-Stamer, Ed Miller, Tom Murtha, Russ Neuman, Elie Noam, Greg Noble, Jerry Pearlman, Aseem Prakash, Harmeet Sawhney, William Schreiber, Pete Seel, Gary Shapiro, Marko Slusarczuk, Alvy Ray Smith, Sid Topol, Laura Tyson, Adam Watson- Brown, and John Zysman. Thanks also to the anonymous readers of the manuscript for their suggestions and advice. Research assistance for this bookwas provided by the following current and former students at Indiana University: George Candler, Youngmin Jo, Sangbae Kim, MarkMarone, Craig Ortsey, Khalil Osman, Aseem Prakash, and Robert Reed. John Thomas co-authored an earlier version of chapter 6.

Acronyms

ABC American Broadcasting Corporation ACATS Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services ACTV Advanced Compatible Television AEA American Electronics Association ALTV Association for Low-Power Television AMST Association of Maximum Service Telecasters ANSI American National Standards Institute ARD Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency (see also DARPA) ATM asynchronous transfer mode ATRC Advanced Television Research Consortium ATSC Advanced Television Standards Committee AT&T American Telephone and Telegraph ATTC Advanced Television Testing Center ATV advanced television BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BCG Boston Consulting Group BDB British Digital Broadcasting BIB British Interactive Broadcasting BRITE Basic Research in Industrial Technologies for Europe BSB British Satellite Broadcasting BSkyB British Sky Broadcasting BSS broadcast satellite services BTA Broadcasting Technology Association CATV community antenna television CBS Columbia Broadcasting System CCD charge-coupled device CCIA Computer and Communications Industry Association CCIR Comit´eConsultatif International de Radio-Diffusion CECC Consumer Electronics Capital Corporation CEMA Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association

xii List of acronyms

CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization CEO chief executive officer CICATS Computer Industry Committee on Advanced Television Standards CIF common image format CLT Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télévision CNCL Commission Nationale de la Communication et des Libertés COFDM coded orthogonal frequency division multiplex CompTIA Computer Technology Industry Association COO chief operating officer CRT cathode ray tube DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (see also ARPA) DBS direct broadcast satellite DG Directorate General (European Union) DIVINE digital video narrowband emission DM deutsche mark DSS digital satellite service DTH direct to home DTN Digital Television Network DTV digital television DTVJ DirecTV Japan DVB Digital Video Broadcasting DVD digital versatile disk EBU European Broadcasting Union EDTV enhanced definition television EIA Electronic Industries Association EIAJ Electronic Industries Association of Japan EPG electronic program guide ESPRIT European Strategic Program for Research and Development in Information Technology ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute EU European Union Eureka European Research Coordinating Agency FCC Federal Communications Commission FSF Free Software Foundation FSS fixed satellite services GA Grand Alliance GDL Grand Duchy of Luxembourg GI General Instrument

List of acronyms xiii

GNU Gnu’s Not Unix GPL General Public License HBO Home Box Office HD-MAC high definition multiplexed analog components HDTV high definition television HTML hypertext markup language IBA Independent Broadcasting Authority (UK) IDTV improved definition television IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers INTV Association of Independent Television Stations ISDB integrated services digital broadcasting ISDN integrated services digital network ITC Independent Television Commission ITU International Telegraphic Union JESSI Joint European Semiconductor Silicon Initiative JSAT Japan Satellite Broadcasting JSB Japan Satellite Broadcasting LPTV low power television MAC multiplexed analog components MHz megahertz MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MITI Ministry of International Trade and Industry MMBG Multimedia Betriebsgesellschaft MOU memorandum of understanding MPAA Motion Picture Association of America MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group MPT Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications MST Association of Maximum Service Telecasters MSTV Association for Maximum Service Television MTV Music Television MUSE multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding NAB National Association of Broadcasters NACB National Association of Commercial Broadcasters NACS National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors NBC National Broadcasting Company NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications NCTA National Cable Television Association NHK Nipon Hoso Kyokai (Japan National Broadcasting) NII National Information Infrastructure NPRM Notice of Proposed Rule Making NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration

xiv List of acronyms

NTL National Telecommunications Limited NTN Nippon Television Network NTSC National Television Standards Committee Oftel Office of Telecommunications (UK) OMB Office of Management and Budget ORTF Office de Radiodiffusion TélévisionFran¸caise OSI Open Source Initiative OSS/FS open source software / free software PAL phased alternation by line PBS Public Broadcasting System PITAC President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee PTT postal, telegraphic, and telecommunications agency QAM quadrature amplitude modulation RACE Research and Development for Advanced Communications Technology in Europe RAI Radio Audironi Italiane, later Radiotelevisione Italiane RCA Radio Corporation of America RTL Radiodiffusion-TélévisionLuxembourgeoise SC spectrum compatible SDTV standard definition television SECAM séquentialcouleuram´ ` emoire Sematech Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology SES SociétéEuropéennedes Satellites SMATV satellite master antenna television SMPTE Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol / Interconnection Protocol TDF Télédiffusionde France UHF ultra high frequency VCR videocassette recorder VHF very high frequency VHSIC very high-speed integrated circuits VSB vestigial sideband WARC World Administrative Radio Conference WAZ WestfälischAlgemeine Zeitung WWW World Wide Web