FCC Sets Criteria for Firms Wanting to Market HDTV

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday narrowed the field of contestants in the high-stakes battle for the right to market a high-definition television transmission system in the United States.

The FCC voted to consider only HDTV systems that will not require an extra “augmentation” channel of scarce TV space in order to provide the crystal-clear pictures and compact-disc-quality sound that the new system promises. Instead, the commission said it will consider only so-called simulcast transmission systems for inclusion in the standards expected to be finally selected in early 1993.

Simulcast systems would separately broadcast the existing television signal and the enhanced high-definition signal. Under this system, a viewer with a standard receiver would receive the “old” signal, while a viewer with a new high-definition TV set would receive the HDTV signal. The “augmentation system” would have blended the current signal with a high-definition signal and would have required additional space on the transmission waves.

The commission has said previously that any HDTV system it selects for U.S. transmissions must be compatible with the existing TV system to avoid making every TV set in the nation obsolete.

Wednesday’s decision, announced by FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes during a meeting of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, sets the stage for the commission to test, evaluate and select the transmission standard for HDTV in the United States.

The final selection has been long awaited by HDTV proponents who say the United States must move quickly to catch up with Japanese and European competitors in developing the next generation of television, a technological breakthrough expected to produce advances for military, educational, medical and computer applications.

The FCC’s test center is scheduled to recommend the winning system to the FCC in the fall of 1992, and a final selection is expected within the following six months, setting the stage for full-scale production and transmission of HDTV programs long before the end of the century.