Cable Firms Say They’ll Offer Quality Digital

The two largest U.S. cable TV companies, Tele-Communications Inc. and Time Warner Inc., reassured Congress that they’ll offer the same quality digital pictures that many broadcast TV stations will begin airing later this year.

“We want to make sure that we’re passing through the same quality” picture that the broadcasters are initially airing, Joseph Collins, chief executive of Time Warner cable, told the House telecommunications subcommittee.

The issue is important for the nation’s 1,600 TV stations as they spend millions to make the switch from analog TV to digital, which allows them to air sharper, wider pictures and CD-quality sound and to transmit data to TV sets.

To see the new, highest-quality digital signals, consumers will need to purchase a digital TV set, which will be on the market later this year for between $2,500 and $10,000. Broadcasters and set manufacturers have raised concerns that the 66 million U.S. households that subscribe to cable won’t see the same picture they transmit, even with a digital TV, because cable could decide to downgrade the signal.

Complicating the situation is the fact that the four major broadcast networks--ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox--have adopted different digital TV technical formats with varying picture quality.

Collins and TCI Chief Executive Leo Hindery told a House panel Thursday that their cable systems will air the high-quality pictures, regardless of the format in which they are transmitted.

“There will be no degradation [of the picture quality] regardless of the format” the broadcaster uses to air a digital signal, Hindery told the telecommunications subcommittee.