TOPIC: High Definition Television (HDTV)
DEFINITION: HDTV is high-resolution digital television (DTV) which encompasses 720 or 1080 lines of resolution. HDTV can offer 5.1 channel CD-quality Dolby Digital surround sound (AC-3). Each HDTV picture can contain as many as 2 million pixels.
IMPORTANCE: HDTV's popularity will only continue to grow. The bandwidth intensive service is supported by FCC who has mandated the switchover to DTV. HDTV adds value for MSOs and provides a significant competitive element to retain subscribers. Satellite has been aggressively marketing HDTV, though they have more bandwidth constraints than Cable.
FUTURE: HDTV will be increasingly adoption by masses over next 5 years. Content availability will continue to increase and the price of TV sets will continue to decrease. Consumers will weigh the price/value factor of an HDTV set purchase more frequently as time passes. Sports and Movies will be initial drivers of the segment.

Contents:

HDTV Big Picture:
- Overview
- Business case
- Market penetration
- Pricing and packaging
- Tiers
- Significance of Standard & High Resolution

Competitive Front:
- Importance of HDTV against Satellite and Telcos
- Satellite taking an early lead but tide is changing
- The retail battle
- Cable's response
- Cable partners with Samsung

HDTV Retail Offerings:
- Comcast
- Cox
- Time Warner
- DirecTV
- EchoStar
- Voom
- Additional MSO HDTV offerings

What Lies Ahead:
- HDTV and the FCC conversion
- HDTV conversion will be a long process
- Must-carry
- New must-carry proposal
- Outlook

Satellite HDTV:
- Satellite quick to market
- Local channel issue
- Consumers must buy antenna for local HD channels
- Satellite HDTV content
- Satellite HDTV bandwidth
- New satellite bandwidth technologies
- Voom
- Voom doom?

Programmers & Content:
- Content availability
- HDTV business case
- HDTV Programming
(Last updated May 1, 2004)

Marketing, Messaging, Awareness & Training:
- Consumer education
- Comcast customer education strategy
- CEA & CTAM helping the cause
- Market awareness
- Messaging
- Retail strategy
- CSR Training

Technology:
- The importance of bandwidth
- Intensive HDTV signals require 256 QAM modulation
- Cable is carrying analog channels where Satellite is not
- Importance of encoders
- HDTV quality must be passed on to viewer

About HDTV Signals:
- Analog vs Digital