(return to home page) WHO WE ARE About the company E-mail us! Address and phone numbers OUR PRODUCTS Satellite Business News FaxUPDATE Trade Show Dailies Trade Show Videos ONLINE NEWS & INFORMATION Changing Channels Digital TV Beat Scanning the Skies Industry Stats A Look Back: Satellite TV History SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Sign up for the magazine and the fax Get back issues Read past show news ADVERTISING INFORMATION Ads in the magazine Ads in the fax Trade Show Products Online ads: The latest, hippest way to get your name out there! About our readers

THOMSON'S DBS BRAIN: Channels ARE Plentiful in New Digital TV World October 21, 1998 No matter how many jaws drop when high-definition TVs hit the stores, many retailers believe those viewers will not become paying customers unless digital TV signals are readily available. With the broadcasters' transition to digital signals on a gradual timetable stretching to 2006, Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc. sees the arrival of digital TVs as a prime growth opportunity for satellite TV--which has been offering digital signals for years. Thomson is putting the guts of its DirecTv/USSB receivers into all of its new digital TVs. With that added feature, consumers will be able to watch digital broadcast signals and DirecTv Inc.'s and U.S. Satellite Broadcasting Inc.'s channels on the same TV. RCA and ProScan brand 55-inch and 61-inch projection TVs are slated to hit retailers' floors next month. The big-screen sets will retail starting in the $6,000 range. TVs in the 34-inch to 36-inch range, also with DirecTv/USSB technology, are due out next year and have not been priced yet, said Bruce Babcock, vice president of DBS software and new product programming. Adding DirecTv/USSB technology did not significantly impact the cost of building the TVs, Babcock said, so it is also not influencing the manufacturer's suggested retail price. Thomson chose the technology from a list of possible features it could add to distinguish its TVs from the half-dozen or so other TV makers' digital products, he said. With more than 80 percent of the DirecTv/USSB receiver market, Thomson believes the technology has caught on enough with consumers to compel them to choose the DBS equipped HDTVs over another manufacturer's TVs. "It's a tremendous advantage for us because consumers have jumped on" DirecTv/USSB systems, he said. "It's the technical one-upmanship of getting it in on the front end." Sony Electronics Corp., the main competitor to Thomson in manufacturing both TVs and DBS receivers, will wait before deciding whether to put DirecTv/USSB reception technology in its TVs, said Greg Gudorf, Sony vice president of marketing for digital media products. With just 4 percent of U.S. households, the DirecTv/USSB market share is not large enough to be considered a mainstream attraction, he argued. EchoStar Communications Corp. has said it also plans to wait before integrating its DISH receiver technology into TVs as well. For Sony, it is a matter of "market timing," Gudorf said. "It's a matter of finding the right time to put it out there. Anytime you make a combination product, there's got to be a good, strong reason for it." Thomson could have waited and rolled out DirecTv/USSB functions in second generation TVs, Babcock noted, but the ability to give consumers more digital channels right now clinched the decision. Admittedly, they are not the highest resolution 1080i high-definition pictures, nor even the lower resolution 720p pictures, he said. But digital DBS pictures are higher resolution than what most TV viewers see today--fuzzy, snowy broadcast pictures or cable pictures with herring bones and other distortion. Thomson is banking on the fact that the DBS picture's improved picture quality has already driven millions of homes to switch to DBS. "We have to not over-promise what's going to be available in digital broadcast. That's the cool part of having [DirecTv/USSB capability] built in. You already get 200 channels of digital service," Babcock said. Of course, there are a couple of catches. The satellite channels come only with a DirecTv and/or USSB subscription. And the would-be TV buyers suddenly have to deal with putting dishes on their roofs. With HDTV still a mystery to many consumers, will they have the patience during the busy holiday season to learn about both digital TV and digital satellite systems? This is where the retailer comes in. While many satellite dealers are questioning their place in the digital TV market, Thomson's TVs with built-in DBS systems may be the perfect crossover product. Retailers are going to have to learn to explain both technologies, Babcock agreed. "Certainly [consumers] would be overwhelmed by the technology if we just put it out there," he said. "We have to clearly train the sales folks to tell the customers" about both functions. Those who buy Thomson's new digital TVs do not have to become DirecTv or USSB customers right away. Then could even pretend the satellite system does not exist in the TV at all, or connect a competing DBS service's receiver to it. "I think the product will be attractive enough that if somebody wants to buy the set and not activate the service--though I can't imagine it--our [TV] product is compelling enough on its own," Babcock said. --Mary Hillebrand OTHER DIGITAL TV BEATS HBO HDTV GETS READY: Titles Coming Up On HBO HDTV March 10, 1999 THE DATA HORIZON: PBS Tackles the Bandwidth Usage Question February 24, 1999 RESEARCH: The Reports Are in, But the Conclusions Are Confusing February 10, 1999   NEW FEES: There Is No Such Thing as Free Spectrum January 27, 1999   CES TV TALK: More Buzz than the Sequins on an Elvis Jacket January 13, 1999   CES: Bright Lights, Big Pictures to Hit Vegas December 16, 1998 LOCAL EFFORTS: Broadcasters Give Viewers A Push Toward TV Purchase November 18, 1998   FIRSTS: Digital TV Broadcasts Hit the Airwaves November 4, 1998   DECISIONS, DECISIONS: Taking the Plunge into Digital TV October 7, 1998   FIREWIRE: So the Blender Says to the Toaster, He Says... September 23, 1998 They're Here... September 9, 1998   GOT AN IDEA? E-mail it to: general.mail @satbiznews.com WANT TO SPONSOR DIGITAL TV BEAT? Call 202-785-0505 or e-mail general.mail @satbiznews.com Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.