NOTEBOOK

Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, Dec 20, 1999

Ignoring threats of National Football League (NFL), Canadian Web company iCraveTV.com carried live Internet streaming version of Mon. Night Football Dec. 13 (TVD Dec 13 p6). NFL spokesman said league's lawyers were "huddling... to plan strategy." While audio quality was good, he said, video streaming was "extremely poor." Broadcasters have complained that lowering quality of video for streaming constitutes significant change that makes iCraveTV.com ineligible even for Canada's relatively lenient retransmission rules. Refusing to give timetable for NFL legal action, he said consideration of whether to act in conjunction with broadcaster and content groups is among issues being decided. Granite Bcstg. lawyer Tom Davidson said group of Buffalo stations "will be making a decision within the next week" on legal action. He said stations believe their copyrights are being infringed on in both U.S. and Canada. Canadian Assn. of Bcstrs. spokeswoman said Assn. isn't speaking publicly about its plans. Also threatening suit but not yet announcing one was Canadian Film & TV Production Assn., which said at least 12 of its members were planning legal action. One source said it's possible legal discussions will drag past Christmas before anything is filed, since "there's a lot of groups involved in this." She said groups realize that despite hurry to make quick splash, "it'll take years" for case to reach legal conclusion. ------

Benedek Bcstg. agreed to sell WWLP (Ch. 22, NBC) Springfield, Mass., to WGRC Inc. for $123 million, companies said. WGRC is owned by Gary Chapman, CEO of LIN TV. ------

CBS Engineering & Technology Vp Richard Seidel sharply criticized supporters of CODFM digital transmission, arguing that tests in Baltimore earlier this year with 8-VSB DTV standard proved only "that the receivers they selected to do the test were the worst in the industry." Test wasn't "representative of what can be achieved" with 8-VSB or "representative of the system as it was designed," said Seidel, speaking at Stanford Resources Flat Information Displays conference in Monterey, Cal. Tests by CBS-TV year ago in N.Y.C. produced 96% success rate in terms of DTV reception, he said, and figures will continue to improve with introduction of ghost-canceling chips from Motorola and Nxtwave in first quarter 2000. Tests of chips at CBS affiliate in Philadelphia have been "very promising" in eliminating "dynamic and/or moving" ghosts at location 35 miles from transmission tower, Seidel said. "Don't be deceived by the rhetoric that is going on with regard to which modulation scheme is better," he said. "8-VSB works and it works well." In pushing for expansion of HD programming, CBS has had talks with Cox and AT&T on carriage agreements that would supplement existing pacts with Time Warner and Cablevision, Seidel said. Congress's recent passage of legislation allowing DBS companies to provide local-into-local service could accelerate discussions, he said. "I think local- into-local has modified their position a little because now they're going to face major competition." CBS also is planning to unveil new lineup of HD sporting events at CES in Jan. that's likely to include NCAA basketball, PGA tour, NFL and NBA, Seidel said. CBS, which broadcast 18 hours of U.S. Open tennis in HD in Sept., currently shoots 80% of prime-time programming on widescreen 35mm film that can be converted to HD, he said. It also is studying several alternatives for additional bandwidth available with HD. Mitsubishi and Samsung have underwritten portion of HD programming costs. ------

Ghost-busting DTV chip has been announced by Oren Semiconductor, joining Motorola-Sarnoff alliance and NxtWave in offering solution to multipath conditions affecting indoor reception through 8-VSB modulation system (TVD Sept 6 p4). Chip is said to improve ability of DTVs to receive VSB-based programming in difficult environments, such as city centers. Oren, based in Santa Clara, said OR51210 chip includes proprietary adaptive equalizer that can be reconfigured on-fly to optimize recovery of main DTV signal from among multipath reflections. Design enables chip to reallocate its 576 filter taps for more efficient pre-echo and post-echo coverage over -4.5 to +44.6 microsec. range, Oren said. Chip samples are available now, and will cost $24 each in quantities of 1,000 when production begins in first quarter. ------

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RCN Corp. said it signed definitive agreement to acquire Chicago overbuilder 21st Century Telecom Group for $500 million. Acquisition will enable RCN to expand into new high-density residential market with more than 3.1 million homes, company said. Holders of 21st Century common will get 4.7 million RCN common shares in all-stock transaction. RCN also will offer to exchange $62 million worth of its common shares for 21st Century's outstanding exchangeable preferred stock. ------