FCC Orders All TV's To Have Digital Tuners By 2007

["Mark Watson" <markwats@attbi.com>]

  Saw an Associated Press report on line thru Yahoo news that the FCC
commissioners voted 3-1 today to require that TV manufacturers have digital
tuners in all TV sets by July 2007. All TV's with screens of 36 inches and
larger must have digital tuners by July 2004. FCC chairman Michael Powell
siad that this will take TV's from being HDTV ready to HDTV reality.

   The article also mentions that as of today, 455 TV stations are
broadcasting a digital signal in markets that include almost 90% of the
nation's TV households, but less than 1% of the 25 million TV's sold every
year have digital tuners built in.

   I guess today's FCC vote should speed things up as far as stations
getting digital facilities up and running and TV manufacturers starting to
include digital tuning capabilities in TV's. They now have a deadline
looming along with TV broadcasters.

 As previously mentioned, I found this article on Yahoo news   www.yahoo.com
then click on news link, for those who may wish to read the full article.

Mark Watson