Audio Video News

On the heels of aggressive lobbying by the Sinclair Broadcast Group (see <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?639">related story</A>), the FCC today released a letter denying a Petition for Expedited Rulemaking, filed by Sinclair, requesting that the Commission modify its rules to allow broadcasters to transmit Digital Television (DTV) signals using COFDM modulation in addition to the current 8-VSB modulation standard.

A federal court in Denver hosted a DBS David vs. Goliath scene the first week of February, when <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com/">EchoStar Communications Corporation</A> filed an antitrust suit against its rival <A HREF="http://www.directv.com/">DirecTV</A> and Thomson Consumer Electronics, charging them with conspiring to keep EchoStar's products out of electronics stores.

Looking for the ultimate computer monitor or a very thin home-theater display? <A HREF="http://sharp-world.com/">Sharp Corporation</A> has just announced the launch of the world's first television with a liquid-crystal screen and onboard decoder of direct satellite broadcasts. The 30"-diagonal screen is only 2.4" thick, making it the world's largest LCD television, according to Sharp executives.

Video streaming on the Internet is a few years away from offering any real competition to cable television, but technological limitations haven't prevented entrepreneurs from exploring the entertainment frontier. This year's recently completed <A HREF="http://www.sundance.org/">Sundance Film Festival</A> saw a huge increase in the number of Net startups&mdash;many without active sites&mdash;looking to sign deals with independent filmmakers for short features.

The Internet's video parallel to the controversial MP3 free-music phenomenon&mdash;currently being contested in US courts&mdash;quickly reached crisis proportions last week. A judge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ruled against <A HREF="http://www.icravetv.com/">iCraveTV.com</A>, a Canadian startup that late last year began retransmitting Canadian and American TV programming over the Internet without permission. On January 28, the judge found in favor of a coalition of plaintiffs, including three of the four major television networks, several movie studios, the <A HREF="http://www.nba.com/">National Basketball Association</A>, and the <A HREF="http://www.nfl.com/">National Football League</A>. At the moment, iCraveTV's site has a notice informing visitors that "access to stations and program listings is not available."

What's a tag line worth? Try five million bucks. That's the price <A HREF="http://www.lagroupinc.com/">LA Group, Inc.</A>, paid in mid-January for "As Seen On TV," one of the oldest phrases in the marketing lexicon. The domain name <A HREF="http://www.AsSeenOnTV.com/">www.AsSeenOnTV.com</A> will be used for a portal site for customers looking for products they have seen&mdash;that's right&mdash;on TV.

According to statistics released last week, factory-to-dealer sales of digital television (DTV) products closed out the year by posting a fifth consecutive month of growth in December. Numbers released by the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) indicate that DTV sales last month surpassed 23,000 units, bringing sales figures for 1999 to 121,226, and total sales since the introduction of DTV (in August 1998) to 134,402.