Delays in rolling out DTV in Canada looking wiser as U.S. stumbles on standards

Canada's decision to stay 18-24 months behind the U.S. in rolling out digital television (DTV) is beginning to look like a masterstroke of wisdom. While the American television industry ruthlessly second-guesses its 8VSB DTV transmission standard - which is already being used by 126 U.S. DTV stations covering 62.74 per cent of that country - the most Canadian broadcasters are on the hook for is a single 8VSB transmitter borrowed from Larcan. Rollout update of U.S. digital TV Shipments of digital television sets in the U.S. are projected to increase to more than a half million units this year. By 2004, as DTV set prices decrease and the government-mandated cessation of analog transmissions nears, this figure will soar to 5.9 million units, resulting in $9 billion in revenue, reports Cahners In-Stat Group, a consumer preference analyst. The survey company says HDTV Displays will reign supreme for the next couple of years, and will eventually be overtaken by Standard Definition (SD) TV sets in 2003. The large price differential between HDTV and SDTV will remain constant and the minimal variance in picture quality in sets below 30 inches will convince consumers replacing smaller screen sets to opt for SDTV. As a result, SDTV sets will lead the market in shipping volume by 2004, even though HDTV sets will generate more overall revenue.It's part of an experimental transmission site south of Ottawa, which is being run by the Canadian Digital Television (CDTV) group and the federally funded Communications Research Centre (CRC). CDTV is the Canadian consortium of broadcasters, equipment suppliers, and government officials charged with bringing 8VSB digital television to Canada. Mindful of cross-border American TV's importance to Canadians, the federal government officially embraced the U.S. 8VSB standard in 1997. Today, CDTV is "aggressively monitoring" the 8VSB brouhaha, says CDTV president Michael McEwen. It's a battle that has pitted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) against the Sinclair Broadcast Group in a heated war of words. Sinclair's position is simple: it tested COFDM modulation - which is the basis of Europe's competing DVB-T DTV standard - and found COFDM to outperform 8VSB, particularly for indoor antenna reception. As a result, Sinclair unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC to take a second look at the COFDM standard. Since then, the war between 8VSB and COFDM proponents has become downright ugly, with each side questioning the other's motives and integrity. Ironically, none of this might have happened had the U.S. listened to Canada years ago, says Metin Akgun, VP of the CRC's broadcast technology research group. "Way back in 1995, when the standard hadn't been set yet, a group of broadcasters from Canada, the U.S. and Brazil wanted to test the COFDM system," Akgun tells CCR. "They asked us to specify and do the test, which we did." Although conducted in the lab, the CRC's results clearly showed the performance differences between COFDM and 8VSB; the same differences now being trumpeted by Sinclair. However, rather than taking these results seriously, the FCC Advisory Committee disparaged COFDM, dismissed the CRC's research and by claiming "the COFDM technology is immature-.. they pretty much ignored it" says Akgun. "Now it comes back to haunt us." Mark Richer tells a different version of events. Without being specific, he says the FCC Advisory Committee rejected the CRC's data "for a variety of technical reasons." However, it's conventional DTV wisdom that COFDM was rejected for protectionist reasons. The COFDM standard wasn't made and isn't owned by the U.S. -- 8VSB was and is. (As well, the notion that the CRC's research was "premature" seems ridiculous. By 1995, the CRC knew COFDM well, having spent five years testing it for use in Canadian digital radio. Today, COFDM is Canada's official digital radio standard, and it's performing well.) This is why Sinclair's pro-COFDM campaign offended the ATSC so much, and why the ATSC originally stonewalled Sinclair, hoping they would just go away. But instead of vanishing, COFDM gradually won the support of U.S broadcasters leery of choosing the wrong transmission standard. As Sinclair VP of corporate relations Mark Hyman says, "we went from being the ugliest kid on the block to the prettiest girl on the dance floor, all in one year." As a result, the ATSC has grudgingly struck a RF transmission task force that will, among other things, look at the COFDM issue. Still, despite assertions by ATSC executive director Mark Richer said ATSC isn't a pro-8VSB "trade organization", it's hard to imagine the ATSC overturning the 8VSB standard in favour of COFDM. Not only would this gut the U.S. DTV movement - and seriously hurt Zenith Corporation, which is relying on 8VSB to revive its flagging fortunes - but it would also put U.S. broadcasters in a terrible position. And it's not just the 126 TV stations broadcasting in 8VSB that would be hurt: the entire U.S. DTV frequency allocation plan might be put into doubt, at a time when the U.S. government wants to auction off the analog TV band to pay down the federal debt. As a result, Sinclair's Mark Hyman - whose pro-COFDM emails have been inundating U.S. broadcasters for weeks - expects the ATSC to try to smooth things over by "retaining 8VSB and adding COFDM." This would allow 8VSB supporters to save face, he says, while giving broadcasters the choice many want. Can this be done? Yes, says the ATSC's Mark Richer. "If the industry, as represented by the ATSC members, want to develop new standards or modify standards, it can do so." Meanwhile, as a member of ATSC, CDTV's Michael McEwen is trying to get in Canada's "two cents' worth" on the 8VSB/COFDM issue. But McEwen has no doubts that, whatever happens, Canada will have to follow the U.S. lead. It's not just "the tremendous impact of trans-border signals" that dictates this fact, he says. TV manufacturers aren't going to make one DTV for Canada and the other for the U.S., simply because our market is too small.

Delays in rolling out DTV in Canada looking wiser as U.S. stumbles on standards

News | 05/11/2000 4:00 am EDT

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