HBO Broadcasts HDTV To No One

As reported previously, HBO was scheduled to being its first HDTV broadcasts March 6, although, as it turn out, no cable or satellite carriers were ready to transmit the new services to viewers with HDTV-capable sets.HBO acknowledges that its HDTV broadcasts of premium movies are currently being transmitted to no one, but says that it will use the early transmissions to fine-tune the system as it waits for carriers to catch up.Both DirecTV (via USSB, whose acquisition will be complete midyear) and EchoStar (beginning HDTV service this fall) have announced plans to add HBO HDTV channels, but reportedly DirecTV must await its pending purchase of USSB to be finalized first, while EchoStar has not yet delivered HDTV-capable receivers and satellite dishes to market.Both Cablevision and Time Warner are experimenting with HDTV transmissions over their cable networks but so far no scheduling plans have been announced.There has been no announcements by manufacturers of satellite receivers and dishes of new products that would conform to the signal and antenna requirements to receive HDTV broadcasts but certainly there will have to be a new generation of product introduced by fall as current receivers and dishes are incapable of HDTV reception.