This is article written in October 1998 in which I am quoted on the subject of the promise of digital TV. ~blm

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Digital TV Promises a New Level of Interactive Entertainment and Information for Television Viewers

Microsoft is working with leaders from many different industries to develop opportunities that will be offered by a new era of television.

October 30, 1998 — Imagine sitting in your living room, watching game six of the World Series on television, and being able to “interact” with the game. You click on your favorite player to learn his batting average against the pitcher he’s facing as he comes up to bat. You change cameras to get a close-up of the ball as he hits a high fly into left field, and then you tap a button to see the replay. You click on your screen to order a commemorative picture after your favorite player hits the game-winning home run. All this while your TV produces crystal clear pictures and CD-quality sound.

This vision of digital television will move a step closer to reality on Sunday, November 1, when more than 40 television stations in the nation’s 10 largest cities begin transmitting digital television signals. The move is one of the first concrete steps in a decade-long process to convert television signals in the U.S. from analog to digital. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that television stations complete the conversion to digital broadcasting by 2006. That year the analog spectrum may be turned off if the digital market has developed sufficiently and most U.S. households have replaced their analog TVs with digital television sets, or acquired some other technology (like a set top converter box) enabling them to receive and translate digital signals into analog.

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KCTS, a public television station in Seattle, is among the first television stations in the U.S. to develop digital television programs. The TV station’s digital arm, Intris, has created more than 15 high-definition television programs for distribution in the U.S. It aired its first interactive television show in September, and has an agreement with Microsoft to make Web TV units available to KCTS viewers to expand viewers’ ability to watch interactive TV programs.

Although KCTS is not among the top 10 markets that must begin the conversion to digital TV this year, it has already developed a test signal and will begin transmitting a fully operational digital signal next April, said Barry Martin, director of brand development for Intris. KCTS is developing programs for both the television and the computer, and will improve its programs to match the state of digital technology. “We’re agnostic as to what device people want to receive it on,” he said. “If it’s a digital device, we want to send a signal to it.”

Martin said KCTS’ decision to jump into the digital television market early in the game was a natural extension of the station’s mission to develop high-quality programming that will benefit its viewers. Digital television opens up a variety of opportunities, including better educational programming for schools and colleges. Martin predicted viewers will want to take advantage of opportunities such as these, no matter what device they use.

“You still get a lot of naysayers, who say people don’t want to watch TV on their computer,” he said. “But what they don’t get is that in the digital universe, there’s no such thing as a computer versus a television set. It’s a monitor, and all that’s happening is that you will have a box with more or fewer capabilities.”

Read the complete article to see what we were thinking about more than a decade ago: CLICK HERE
Related articles on KCTS and WebTV: CLICK HERE

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dang – I was a visionary! how come I’m not rich?

ps. Thanks Walter.