Real Audio Transcripts are available for the following panels:

• Content and Programming
• Technology
• International Issues

The Changing Economics of TV Industries

How will the investment required for a new digital TV infrastructure and expanded content production be financed? What new distribution opportunities are emerging? How will the traditional advertiser supported broadcast model change? What is the impact of the new broadcast and satellite channels on cable distribution and video rental? How will video servers, affect video rental chains and traditional broadcasters? What will be cable's alternate strategies for bandwidth, new service offerings and pricing?
Consolidation in both the cable and telephone industries, and vertical integration in the entertainment industry, have produced large companies with broad media scope. How will industry structure and economies of scale be affected by digital TV? Will the proliferation of specialized narrowcast channels offer sufficiently large TV markets? How will network affiliate relations be affected? What new financial support mechanisms will emerge? Will the release sequence of movies and syndicated programs change?

Moderator:
David Roddy, Chief Telecommunications Economist, Deloitte & Touche

Papers:
What are Broadcast Networks likely to do with the additional spetrum allocated to them for digital TV and what is their obligation to society for the use of free bandwidth?
W. Russel Neuman, Professor of Communications, Annenberg School for Communications, U. of Pennsylvania

Does digital TV change the economics of the TV Industries?
David Waterman, Associate Professor, Department of Telecommunications, Indiana U.
What's the Role of Economics in the Race Toward Digital TV?
Richard Parker, Director and Senior Fellow, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Harvard U.

Respondents:
Francine Sommer, Gabelli Multimedia
Edward Bleier, Warner Brothers

Impact on Content and Programming

Digital TV may significantly change the number and nature of programs. How will interactivity affect entertainment, news and education? If the Internet is the testbed for interactive TV, how will it influence future TV content? Will digital TV change viewing habits? Will it become a more active and social experience, or a more solitary computer TV viewing event? Will groups be targeted by focused programs and advertising? What will the effect be, on content production, of the opportunity to provide multiple language audio tracks? Will TV programs work with information on DVD and the web for news, shopping, and transactions? Will TV content be direct linked shopping and transactions? Will server-based TV increase the number of voices, or will major mainstream firms and their content dominate? Will local cable companies continue to serve as input points to media distribution?

Moderator:
John Redpath, Home Box Office, HBO

Papers:
Interactive Services: Where Will Content Come From?
John Carey, Director, Greystone Communications
Commercial Broadcast's Public Service obligations.
Jessica Josephson, CEO, International Media Strategies

Respondents:
Robin Mudge, BBC
Sue Treiman, ABC
John Reed, Source Media, Inc.
Gary Poon, PBS

Public Interest Standards for Digital TV - Lunch Speaker
Speaker:
Richard Wiley, Attorney, Willey, Rein & Fielding

Delivery Systems and Technology Issues

Several systems for digital TV distribution are being deployed, including today's digital DBS and DVD. Delivery systems, including over-the-air broadcast, optical fiber, Internet and server-based systems can all provide digital TV with various levels of support for interactivity. How will interoperability issues for these delivery systems be resolved? Is an integration of some of these technologies likely to occur? Which suite of technologies is likely to prevail? Broadband loop technologies and cable modems promise increases in internet access speeds. What additional technologies are needed to bring high quality video to the Internet? Will the computer industryís progressive scan approach to digital TV be reconciled with broadcastís interlaced scan? How will heterogeneous scan systems impact content providers and consumer electronics manufacturers? What improved forms of compression are on the horizon? Will advances in compression, cellular cable and low orbit satellite enable wireless digital TV?

Moderator:
William Schreiber, Professor of Elecrical Engineering Emeritus, MIT

Papers:
Television Systems Evolution
Eugene Miller, Technical Director, Bell Atlantic, Science and Technology
The Digital Mystique: A review of Digital Technology and its Applications to Television.
A. Michael Noll, Professor, Annenberg School of Communications, U. of Southern California

Respondents:
Alvy Ray Smith, Graphics Fellow, Microsoft
Mahesh Balakrishnan, Phillips Research

International Perspective

Digital TV is a global phenomenon, but analog HDTV continues to be broadcast in Japan while the US and Europe are each developing their own digital TV broadcast standards. Will digital TV serve national culture segments of globally dispersed groups of common interests and vocations? Will digital TV increase content internationally? Will digital TV technology accommodate multiple regional standards or will a single standard emerge? What impact will DVD have on consumer electronics companies? Will the World Wide Web evolve to provide instantaneous global access to digital TV?

Moderator:
Rhonda Crane, AT&T

Papers:
Is there a transition path from HDTV to DTV in Japan?
Peter B. Seel, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Technical Communications, Colorado State U.
International political issues raised by digital TV.
Jeffrey A. Hart, Professor, Dept. Political Science, Indiana U.

Respondents:
Wen Liao, Director Marketing Communications, The Fantastic Corporation
Louis Bransford, Pres. and CEO, ESATEL
Herbert Schiller, Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego

Closing Remarks:
Dr. Benjamin Barber, Director, The Walt Whitman Center, Rutgers University

A critical response to the views and ideas presented at The Future of Digital TV conference from the perspective of public discourse, civil society and global communications.