Broadcasters Hesitant to Adopt High-Tech Advances

Six years after Apple Computer Co. founder Steve Jobs came here to urge broadcasters to undergo a high-tech makeover, the entertainment industry -- intent on remaining the dominant force in American living rooms -- is still wary of Silicon Valley.

The computer industry has transformed telecommunications, manufacturing and the office cubicle, but television hasn’t changed much since Jobs told executives at the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention: “We’re dying to work with you guys.”

There are, of course, more channels and fancier TV sets. But, as 90,000 people gather here for the broadcasting industry’s annual convention, the quantum leap in picture quality promised by digital TV -- and the predicted ability to store and transfer video as easily as music fans manage music on their Apple iPods -- is elusive.

Experts blame poor marketing, high prices, disputes over standards and the studios’ fear of ceding control over their creative works to the computer industry. Studios fear piracy, and broadcasters are leery of devices like TiVo Inc.’s digital videorecorders that give users the ability to devise their own viewing schedules and skip commercials, potentially undermining broadcasting’s lifeblood of advertising.

“Rather than protecting content,” the networks, producers and equipment makers “are trying to protect a broadcast business model, which is falling apart without any push from the computer industry,” said James M. Burger, a Washington communications lawyer who represents Apple, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. on digital TV issues.

The entertainment industry is making a stand at the living room door, Burger added, “out of fear the computer industry would march in and take over.”

Nonetheless, Silicon Valley executives and engineers will be in the crowd at the Las Vegas Convention Center, hoping to win converts to their vision of a digital living room. Companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Gateway Inc. want to establish the personal computer as the principal home entertainment manager.

“There’s been a lack of visible traction in this area,” said Jason Reindorp, group manager for Microsoft’s digital media division. But he thinks broadcasters “share our vision of quality digital media content coming into the home and, once it’s in the house, letting the consumer have the freedom to move it about.”

There have been advances. Microsoft, for instance, is working with consumer electronics companies to make portable video viewers so people can take TV shows and movies with them the same way they tote music on their iPod or Walkman.

Apple’s Jobs is steering his company toward a greater array of digital products. Apple has introduced a collection of software programs under the name iLife that allow computer users to create digital content, such as photographs, and display them on their home entertainment centers.

High-tech executives say it’s only a matter of time before relatively inexpensive, off-the-shelf PC technology wrests control of the digital TV market, particularly as more PCs are equipped with DVD players and TV cards.

“There is a move toward general purpose [computer] hardware, and I think the result is that you are going to see much better and cheaper digital products in the living room,” said Jeff Brown, general manager of workstation product management at computer video card maker Nvidia Corp.

“Even our entry-level $100 consumer graphics card renders graphics at resolutions far greater than high-definition TV,” Brown said, and with computer video card technology evolving faster than even computer microprocessor power, “it’s a matter of time” before the PC technology dominates the living room.

The migration may be eased by a federal order for broadcasters to switch, by the end of 2006, to a digital broadcasting system that would have the flexibility to air up to six channels of standard resolution video or a single channel of high-definition video with super-sharp widescreen pictures and compact-disc-quality sound. Federal regulators also want consumer electronics makers to begin incorporating digital tuners into TV sets and cable set-top boxes starting July 1.

Viewers potentially would gain the flexibility to link TVs, videorecorders, cameras and other digital video devices to personal computers that already can copy digital content and send it over the Internet.

Broadcasters and studios have made huge strides in the back office, where falling prices have spurred studios and broadcast networks to abandon analog cameras and other equipment for newer digital gear. Still, about 600 of the nation’s 1,733 television stations haven’t modified their transmission towers to deliver digital video.

And just 13% of the 9 million so-called digital TV sets sold since 1998 include a digital tuner that can capture digital content, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn. The sets are described as digital only because they are capable of displaying a digital picture; upgrading them to actually display digital content is costly.

The 13 available stand-alone digital TV tuners retail for $399 or more apiece, said Greg Tarr, executive editor of TWICE, a New York trade publication that follows the consumer electronics industry.

“Prices are high and choices are restricted because there’s a lot more involved in producing a digital TV tuner than, say, a digital radio,” said Tarr, adding that disputes between Silicon Valley and content providers are also a factor in clogging the digital pipeline.

Because of the delays, the Federal Communications Commission’s media bureau is expected to endorse a broadcast industry recommendation that the digital TV deadline be pushed back to 2009.

Now executives are turning their attention to the looming fight over standards for TV set-top boxes, which manage the flow of content to the screen.

“The digital set-top box issue is a big one,” said Bob Okun, a vice president at General Electric Co.-owned NBC who is the network’s chief Washington lobbyist. “It’s going to control what comes into the home.... It’s a game-changer.”

Said Andrew G. Setos, president of engineering for the television and cable outlets owned by News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group Inc: “We want systems that make it easy for consumers to get content they have legitimately acquired rights to. We think there are systems out there that are going to protect our content. But you can’t rely on locks alone.”

A number of efforts are underway to develop technology to control unauthorized copying and curb piracy. But experts say the open architecture of personal computers and the Internet present huge challenges to those seeking to lock down their digital wares.

Three years ago, for instance, broadcasters sued SonicBlue Inc. for marketing a digital recorder by ReplayTV Inc. that could automatically skip commercials.

Although the limited bandwidth of most Internet connections has confined the threat of widespread digital piracy, Hollywood studios and network TV executives are concerned that the floodgates could soon open with faster Internet connections and Silicon Valley seeking to supplant TV tuners and cable TV set-top boxes with more open PC technology.

“Hollywood and the programming providers want to have direct control over the box that’s in the home,” said Tarr, the TWICE editor, “so that they can switch it off if somebody is illegally copying material.”