Barry Willis

Can direct broadcast satellite services make good on their promises? Representatives of EchoStar and Hughes Electronics Corporation (owner of DirecTV) have promised federal lawmakers that if their merger is approved, they will roll out broadband digital services, retransmit local television signals, and generally saturate the nation with satellite television—all within three years.

Five electronics heavyweights have agreed on an encryption scheme for digitally transmitted movies and music that they hope will prevent widescale piracy by consumers. <A HREF="http://www.intel.com">Intel</A>, <A HREF="http://www.sony.com">Sony</A>, <A HREF="http://www.toshiba.com">Toshiba</A>, <A HREF="http://www.hitachi.com">Hitachi</A>, and Matsushita announced the agreement in Burbank, CA last Thursday.

One of the most overhyped experiments in multimedia is disappearing. Two-year-old <A HREF="http://www.den.net">Digital Entertainment Network</A>, which attempted TV-style programming over the Internet, has decided to close down its operations after finding itself unable to raise the capital needed to continue. The company ran through approximately $65 million dollars during its short life, according to several news reports.

The buzzword "Digital" is on everyone's lips at the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters</A>' NAB 99, which opened Saturday in Las Vegas. Most of the noteworthy goodies on display at the convention are designed for the digital-television market. Demonstrations feature high-definition video courtesy of Las Vegas television station KTVN (Channel 41), which will be broadcasting 720p material all week long.