Drive Toward HDTV Hits Another Bump : Technology: Critics call broadcasters’ proposal that yet another transmission method be analyzed a delaying tactic.

Just days after the selection of a technical standard moved high-definition TV closer to reality, disgruntled broadcasters are pushing new HDTV proposals that threaten to delay the long-awaited technology.

The chairman of the Advanced Television Advisory Committee, which oversees HDTV’s development on behalf of the government, warned the panel that HDTV--under development for nearly a decade--could be further delayed as a result of 11th-hour requests by broadcasters that yet another HDTV transmission technique be analyzed before a final decision is made. Proponents of HDTV consider this request purely a delaying tactic.

Chairman Richard E. Wiley, a Washington lawyer, also said broadcasters have succeeded in getting a bill introduced in Congress that would allow them to use part of their HDTV signal to earn revenue from data transmission and other, non-broadcast, telecommunications services.

The advisory committee had hoped to conclude its work this year and submit its HDTV recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission by fall so that HDTV could be available by the end of 1996.

But the broadcast proposals, said Wiley, “call into question whether our effort should proceed as planned or (be) altered in some manner.” Wiley, whose law firm has one of the largest communications practices in the country and counts CBS and many other broadcasters among its clients, indicated that the FCC may have to take up the matter.

Experts estimate that each of the nation’s 1,600 TV stations will spend more than $1 million to prepare transmitters and studio equipment for HDTV, and millions more on preparing programming in the new HDTV format.

To offset those costs, broadcast industry lobbyists have been pressing lawmakers to let them delay the introduction of HDTV and allow them to use part of the HDTV signal for non-broadcast telecommunications services that could compete with providers such as telephone companies and cable operators.

Industry and consumer hopes have been riding high on HDTV, an advanced television technology that will provide a sharper and wider picture as well as compact disc-quality sound.

In May, the three groups that had been vying to develop a proprietary system to serve as the U.S. standard for HDTV formed an alliance to pool their expertise and share any royalties arising from the new technology. Two transmission methods were recently tested and on Wednesday the HDTV alliance chose Zenith’s, subject to the advisory committee’s review and approval.

Studies have estimated that HDTV could generate as many as 100,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs. Further evidence of HDTV’s importance came when Zenith Electronics Corp. shares jumped 13% on the New York Stock Exchange after the company’s transmission system was given preliminary industry endorsement.

But broadcasters have become increasingly concerned about the costs of switching to HDTV as well as whether enough consumers will shell out the estimated $2,000 to $3,000 for an HDTV set.

John D. Abel, an executive vice president at the National Assn. of Broadcasters, who is the group’s expert on HDTV, could not be reached Friday. But in a statement released by his office, Abel said that because HDTV is an expensive and untested technology, broadcasters needed more flexibility in bringing it to market.

“The role of broadcasting will be even further constrained if we cannot be full-digital multimedia providers in tomorrow’s world, and the American consumer will be worse off because they will end up paying huge sums of money to telephone and cable companies for these services,” the statement said.