HDTV Broadcastersí Plans

ABC restricted HDTV broadcasting has been limited to several movies each month. The network aired Chain Reaction in HDTV April 24 and is scheduled to air five more movies in May, two airings each of The Rock and Phenomenon and the May 6 broadcast premiere of A Time To Kill. At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, April 19-22 in Las Vegas, ABC affiliate KTNV (TV) broadcast a 15-minute demonstration tape of 720 progressive programming created in ABCís New York-based HDTV Release Center. The broadcast included 720p footage of Good Morning America, Monday Night Football and the 1999 Academy Awards broadcast. According to ABC, eighteen of their owned and operated and affiliates are DTV-ready, and all but two are passing through ABCís 720p high-definition programming. The network is planning to expand its HDTV programming to include sports, but is waiting until a truck vendor or manufacturer builds a 720p-capable production truck that it could lease in the same manner that CBS has leased a Sony-equipped 1080I truck for NFL broadcasts.CBS is committed to HDTV and will announce its fall season programming to advertisers on May 19. Thus far, the network has broadcast four football games and a few prime-time shows in HDTV.The Fox Television Network is planning its first HDTV broadcast in May, with a 720p airing of Independence Day. Fox also announced that it will begin experimenting with data broadcasting in Los Angeles this spring using a system developed by Tribune Broadcasting. The system is called ""directed channel change,"" and uses the PSIP (Program System and Information Protocol) to address each of the several standard-definition signals a DTV station can broadcast.PBS stations nationwide that are currently broadcasting DTV will air May 12 in HDTV a high-definition version of Great Performances. The program, Swinginí With Duke: Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis, mixes footage from concerts and swing dance clubs with archival footage of Duke Ellington. Nationwide, 55 television stations in 29 markets are now broadcasting digital signals. This fall will see about 130 DTV stations broadcasting in DTV.