Introduction

Chapter 5 provided a history of the US debate over HDTV standards up to the decision on 23 May 1993 to merge the competing electronics firms into a “grand alliance” for a digital high-definition television system. This chapter starts from that point and brings the history up to and bit beyond 3 April 1997, when the Federal Communications Commission formally adopted a standard for digital television (DTV) in the United States. During this period, there was a change in the attitude of the members of the National Association of Broadcasters toward HDTV: they began to see it as an answer to the problem of declining audience shares. There were also continuous but only partially successful lobbying efforts on the part of major computer firms to have the HDTV standards modified to accommodate their perceived interests. The most important change was brought about by the victory of William Jefferson Clinton in the 1992 presidential elections. Clinton's Vice President, Albert Gore, was a strong exponent of governmental support for the building of an “Information Superhighway.” Clinton, Gore, and their appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission, Reed Hundt, came to believe in the idea of “digital convergence” and had strong views on the role that television should play in that larger project.

Interlace vs. progressive-scan: round one

There was furious bargaining within the grand alliance prior to the announcement of its formation on 24 May 1993 to reconcile the differences in the four digital systems.