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1999 Consumer Electronics Show READ ALL ABOUT IT! PAGE 3 Broadcasters Debate Digital Future With digital television the central topic at CES, several broadcasters discussed the digital rollout from their perspective during “Broadcast Television: A DTV Roundtable.” Lisa Wiersma, director of development for the Tribune Company, predicted Tribune’s local television companies will begin looking more like its newspapers, with multicasting being used to deliver local news, weather, and classified ads. Public television stations will use the digital spectrum to provide high-definition and data-enhanced programming, with minimal multicasting, according to Jerry Butler, director of DTV for PBS. “The big challenge is getting compelling content” for digital broadcasts, Butler said. Nat Ostroff, vice president of new technologies for Sinclair Broadcasting, warned manufacturers must create small antennas that receive digital broadcasts consistently and without the use of rotors in order to make the change to digital worthwhile. He also predicted local networks will be able to create up to 10 broadcast stations through digital multicasting. In another panel, “Selling and Marketing DTV,” Terry Shockley, president of Shockley Communications, whose Madison, Wis., ABC station is among the handful of broadcasters already transmitting digital broadcasts, urged retailers and broadcasters to work together to promote digital television to consumers. Shockley works with Madison and Illinois retailer American TV to improve community awareness of high-definition television. “We would love to do nothing but drive people into their stores,” Shockley said. It is helpful for retailers to demonstrate high-definition TVs with local digital broadcasts that are more substantial than a twenty-minute loop, he added. TURN THE PAGE OTHER ISSUES: Thursday, Jan. 7, 1999 Saturday, Jan. 9, 1999 Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999   Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.