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, telecommuni- cations, and broadcasting infrastructures made possible by digi- talization) in public debates over standards. Jeffrey Hart’s book shows how nationalism and regionalism combined with digital- ism 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 eco- nomic 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). © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information Technology, Television, and Competition The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information 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. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information To my wife Joan © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information 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 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information 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 stan- dard. 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 – broad- casting, film, video, consumer electronics, computers, and telecommu- nications – 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) stan- dard forced both Japan and Europe to reexamine their earlier decisions on HDTV. This bookis about the forces behind these events. ix © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information 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. x © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information 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 xi © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521826241 - Technology, Television, and Competition: The Politics of Digital TV Jeffrey A. Hart Frontmatter More information xii List of acronyms CENELEC European Committee