TCI Launching Digital TV Transmission Center : Media: New $100-million facility will enable cable operators to greatly increase their channel offerings.

Cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc., moving forward in the wake of its failed merger with Bell Atlantic Corp., today will unveil a $100-million “digital transmission center” that will make it possible for cable operators around the country to greatly expand the number of channels they offer to customers.

The new technology will allow companies to squeeze in four to eight channels where previously they were able to provide only one, paving the way for the creation of “niche” networks.

TCI also is expected to announce that the new technology will help it play a bigger role in the emerging direct broadcast satellite market. Cable operators like TCI face a threat from Hughes and United States Satellite Broadcasting, which are about to launch multichannel systems aimed at siphoning off cable subscribers.

The new transmission center in Colorado will convert a television network’s signal from analog to digital and then compress it into a “package” with other digitized signals. The package of compressed networks will then be transmitted by satellite to cable systems around the country.

For example, a 50-channel cable TV system, using TCI’s new digitized and compressed signals, could offer its customers from 200 to 400 channels. The majority of the new channels are expected to be used for pay-per-view movies.

The technology will eventually let cable TV customers order their channel selection “a la carte,” choosing only those networks they want to watch.

But deployment is dependent on a new generation of powerful set-top decoder boxes that will likely cost from $200 to $300 each. Delivery of the first shipment of decoder boxes to TCI has been delayed because of problems with standardization.

In addition, the new transmission center puts TCI, already considered the most powerful company in the cable industry and a growing force in Hollywood, in a position of middleman between the programmers and the cable operators. Some critics fear the transmission center could end up acting as a bottleneck for programming, with TCI deciding which networks get carried.

At the outset, the transmission center, which will be capable of compressing and transmitting up to 300 channels simultaneously, is expected to serve TCI’s 10 million cable subscribers. TCI also plans to offer the service to medium and small cable operators around the country, many of whom cannot afford to upgrade their systems for the information superhighway.