Networks Urge Slow Shift to Sharper TV Picture System

Three television network chiefs, warning against any broadcasting system that might make today’s 140 million television sets obsolete, advised Congress on Thursday to go slow with plans for big-screen, vastly sharper pictures.

“We’re here to preserve free television,” Laurence A. Tisch, president and chief executive of CBS Inc., told the telecommunications subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The new technology, known as high-definition television, or HDTV, makes possible sharper images and offers the potential for a huge new consumer market in wall-sized television systems.

Could Provide Competition

“Right now, Japanese and European companies are far out in front in developing advanced television systems, while our domestic consumer electronics industry is moribund,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the subcommittee chairman.

Markey and many other members of Congress fear that the burgeoning industry may be captured by foreign producers, and they are searching for ways to assure that the new televisions will be made in the United States, if possible. The television networks, on the other hand, are concerned that high-definition broadcasting could offer new programming that would provide additional competition for them.

“Broadcasters and the FCC have a responsibility to protect the 140 million TV sets currently in use, representing a consumer investment of approximately $70 billion,” Robert E. Wright, president and chief executive of National Broadcasting Co., told the subcommittee.

Wright called for government approval of a compatible system capable of carrying both current signals and the new high-definition picture.

140 Million Obsolete TV Sets

Without a single standard, Wright warned of “confusion, chaos and expense” if consumers were forced to have separate television sets for ordinary broadcasts and for high-definition transmissions. Congress should encourage a uniform broadcast standard for conventional and high-definition television, he said.

Similar advice came from Thomas S. Murphy, chairman and chief executive of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. “Any new system that is not compatible with existing receivers will cause 140 million existing television sets in this country to become obsolete,” he warned.

However, the cable television industry, a rival of the networks for viewers, takes a different approach. More than half of households with television sets also subscribe to a cable service, and 2 million homes have satellite dishes, said Richard D. Roberts, chairman of TeleCable Corp.

“It is very likely that a single transmission standard could adversely affect both of these technologies,” said Roberts, representing the National Cable Television Assn. The single standard, while helpful to the networks, could freeze progress in development of better pictures for transmission by cable and satellite, the cable industry argues.

More Lines on Screen

The dispute between the networks and cable industry, traditionally fierce rivals, creates delicate political issues for members of Congress grappling with the new technology. The legislators want to keep constituents happy with their current television offerings yet make even bigger and better pictures available to television-hungry Americans.

In at least one proposed system, high-definition television pictures would be composed of 1,125 lines running across the screen, compared to 525 lines under the current system. This makes the picture much sharper and makes huge screens possible.

The system also can be installed in a “smart receiver,” which can edit videotapes, and it can carry computerized information. The sound quality could match that of compact disc recording systems.

The world market for high-definition television sets and related video recorders and computer monitors “could eventually amount to $500 billion--dwarfing markets for previous electronic products,” Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), told a hearing Thursday of the House science and research subcommittee.

HDTV “represents a new generation of consumer electronics, one that will drive technological developments in dozens of areas, from chip to fiber-optic to battery to camera technology,” Levine said.

“I believe it (is) critical,” he said, “that America mount a major national effort to develop and diffuse HDTV technology here at home.”