Monday, January 12, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
More seen embracing HDTV
Original content, prices called key to growth
By CHRIS JONES
GAMING WIRE
CES visitors take a break at the HDTV Sports Bar where a variety of HD televisions from several companies are displayed.
Photo by John Gurzinski.
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A growing number of American consumers will embrace high-definition television this year, though the technology won't reach its full potential until prices come down and more original content is produced using HDTV technologies, a panel of broadcast industry leaders said Friday in Las Vegas.
"We need more original, not just converted, HD content," said Eddy Hartenstein, vice chairman of Hughes Electronics Corp. "We've all got to take the lead because ultimately television is going to migrate to that.
"You only need to look at it side-by-side (next to non-HDTV signals) and you can see why it's a huge priority."
Hartenstein, whose company operates the DirecTV satellite television service, was part of a seven-person panel of industry experts at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which ended Sunday. Another panelist, HDNet Chairman and President Mark Cuban, said he also believes more consumers will come to HDTV once the variety and amount of available high-definition programming improves.
Getting to that point is both costly and difficult, Cuban added, because new shows must be created within the HDTV format.
"(HDTV growth) is driven by great content," Cuban said. "A traditional or digital cable or satellite network has millions of hours to choose from to license. But with a high-definition network, there's really no treasure trove of content to license.
"You really have to create an organization and invest in an organization that produces great, original content shot in high-definition. ... You have to be willing to spend a lot of money because that's what it's going to cost to display great content in hi-def."
A dot-com pioneer who in 1999 walked off with a reported $1.3 billion after selling his Broadcast.com venture to Yahoo!, Cuban has since September 2001 headed HDNet, which bills itself as the first national television network broadcasting all of its programming via the HDTV format.
Cuban is perhaps best known for his courtside antics and often controversial comments associated with the National Basketball Association, whose Dallas Mavericks franchise he purchased four years ago.
Industry estimates show that by the end of this year more than 14 million digital television sets will have been shipped to dealers since the beginning of 1999; the vast majority of those sets were classified as high-definition models, as opposed to the less-popular standard definition or enhanced definition digital models.
HDTV's total has jumped substantially since five years ago, when only 121,000 digital devices were shipped. Still, an estimated 92 percent of U.S. households have so far remained on the HDTV sidelines until more programming becomes available.
George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, said his company and others are already working to expand HDTV's presence. He said "a tremendous amount" of HDTV content is now being produced, with more to come as consumers increasingly adopt the technology.
"It's incumbent on all of us to promote these products," said Bodenheimer, whose ESPN HD network became one of the first national HDTV networks when it debuted last March.
DirecTV's Hartenstein added up to half of next fall's National Football League games shown on his company's "Sunday Ticket" pay-per-view package would be shot using cameras that can support high-definition telecasts.
Others who took part in the panel included Glenn Britt, chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner Cable; Chuck Dolan, chairman of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Charlie Ergen, chairman and CEO of EchoStar Communications Corp., the parent company of the Dish Network satellite television service; and John Hendricks, founder, chairman and CEO of Discovery Communications.
