July 16, 1998. Copyright, 1998, Graphic News. All rights reserved

DIGITAL REVOLUTION SET TO TRANSFORM TELEVISION
By Oliver Burkeman

LONDON, July 16, Graphic News: THE television revolution will be digitised. The launch of the main terrestrial digital television service, Carlton-Granada consortium British Digital Broadcasting (BDB), is scheduled for November. The BBC has launched a publicity campaign for its own digital channels, and it estimates that, by 2008, between half and two-thirds of all British homes will contain digital TV sets. Viewing will be transformed Ð so much, in fact, that mere ÔviewingÕ will probably become an obsolete term.
Not that anybody seems to care. According to a survey last month (June) by research agency CIA MediaLab, only 16 percent of British viewers are looking forward to interactive television. 82 percent said ITVÕs new channel ITV2, due to launch as part of BDBÕs services, would not affect them.
Perhaps they donÕt realise what the DTV revolution offers. Available via terrestrial signals, satellite and cable, digital broadcasting will herald an explosion in the number of available channels. Around 30 will be offered terrestrially Ð including the BBCÕs round-the-clock News 24 and entertainment service BBC Choice. But the biggest proliferation will be in digital satellite TV already available in France, Germany and the U.S. Ð with up to 200 channels, many of them operated by Rupert MurdochÕs BSkyB.
The number of channels will enable personalised scheduling, with starting times of films staggered on several channels at once. The digital services will also be interactive, allowing participation in polls and quiz shows, improved versions of Teletext, and a choice of camera angles on some coverage. Then thereÕs the cinema-quality pictures, CD-quality sound, widescreen broadcastsÉ 
But perhaps the pessimistic survey respondents see only too clearly the obstacles and disincentives due to be encountered. Two-thirds of respondents told CIA MediaLab that the £200 price tag of the set-top decoder box would be unacceptable. Digital televisions, when available, and the subscriptions necessary for many channels, will all add to the costs.
Meanwhile many TV aerials in the UK are believed to be too old and wrongly positioned to receive the terrestrial service, while 3.6m Sky subscribers will need to replace their current analogue dishes.
Whatever the reasons for the lack of enthusiasm, broadcasters are spending a huge amount of money to try to change our minds: £100 million on advertising, in BSkyBÕs case Ð part of a budget of close to £1bn the firm says it is setting aside for the technology.
Most revolutionary of all, though, will be the integration of internet and television technologies which is expected to follow soon after the introduction of DTV. Some Japanese and American viewers can already surf the web via their TV sets, and Microsoft subsidiary WebTV plans the same for Britain. Last month, the computer giant struck a deal with Sony to integrate the Windows operating system into future DTV set-top boxes.
All of which helps explain the ferocity with which the company has been fighting court battles to establish that Internet Explorer, MicrosoftÕs Web browser, is absolutely integral to Windows. There are millions of PCs in the world Ð but many million more televisions. If they all relied on Internet Explorer, that would represent market saturation on a far bigger scale even than MicrosoftÕs domination of the computer software industry. 
A nightmare for many, perhaps. But a dream come true for Bill Gates.
 /ENDS

Sources: BBC, DVB, Financial Times