Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms -- 1 Introduction -- The role of TV broadcasting in advanced industrial societies -- What is HDTV? -- Digital convergence or digital divergence? -- High technology competition -- Theories of regulation -- Conclusions -- 2 The institutional setting for advanced TV -- Introduction -- Governmental regulation of broadcasting: general issues -- The national broadcasting environments -- The broadcasting environment in the United States -- A brief history of RCA -- RCA and early research on television in the United States -- A short history of CBS -- Early regulation of US broadcasting -- Regulation of TV broadcasting in the United States -- The broadcasting environment in Europe -- Britain -- Germany -- France -- Italy -- Japan -- Conclusions -- 3 Digital convergence: consumer electronics -- Introduction -- The consumer electronics industry -- Demand for consumer electronics products -- The United States -- Japan -- Western Europe -- World production of consumer electronics equipment -- Production in the United States -- Production in Mexico -- Production in Japan -- Production in other East Asian countries -- Production in Western Europe -- The rapid decline of the US television industry -- US firms located new production facilities offshore -- The stillbirth of the US video recorder industry -- Explanation of US decline: a summary -- The impact of the decline of the US consumer electronics industry on US competitiveness in electronics -- Summary and conclusions -- 4 HDTV in Japan -- NHK's research on MUSE/Hi-Vision -- NHK begins to work with Japanese manufacturers -- MUSE: video compression comes to Hi-Vision -- Satellite delivery of MUSE/Hi-Vision signals -- NHK as the architect of Japanese industrial policy in HDTV.

The role of MITI and MPT in promoting Hi-Vision -- NHK goes global -- NHK modifies Hi-Vision to win American support -- Modified Hi-Vision goes to Dubrovnik -- 5 HDTV in the United States -- Introduction -- The HDTV issue comes to the United States -- The issue moves to a higher level -- The AEA Task Force for High Definition Television -- The role of DARPA -- The AEA proposal for HDTV industrial policies -- The Bush Administration clamps down on DARPA -- The FCC standards decisions -- Conclusions -- 6 HDTV in Europe -- Introduction -- The EC blocks adoption of a modified Japanese global standard -- The European approach to HDTV -- The origins of MAC -- EC policies for technological competitiveness: frameworks for an HDTV response? -- The Eureka EU95 program -- The EC directive of 1986 -- Failures of the BSS satellites -- The successes of Astra and the FSS satellites -- Choosing a success or to the 1986 directive -- The Memorandum of Understanding -- The third pillar of the HDTV bargain: the Action Plan -- The meeting of the Telecommunications Council in Luxembourg -- The EC summit in Edinburgh -- Europe reacts to the British veto -- Endgame in Europe -- Discussion: EC policy networks and international competition -- 7 Digital television in the United States -- Introduction -- Interlace vs. progressive-scan: round one -- Initial reasoning behind Liebhold's position on interlace -- HDTV and the Information Superhighway -- Completion of the grand alliance system -- The issue of auctions: round one -- ACATS approve the grand alliance system -- Interlace vs. progressive: round two -- Auctions: round two -- NTSC multiplexing vs. HDTV -- "Must carry" rules -- The negotiation of a compromise with the computer interests -- The FCC decisions of 26 December 1976 and 3 April 1997 -- Reactions to the April 1997 decisions -- Conclusions.

8 Digital television in Europe and Japan -- Introduction -- The death of HD-MAC -- the birth of DVB -- Digital television in Europe -- Digital broadcasting in Britain -- Digital broadcasting in Germany -- Digital broadcasting in France -- Digital broadcasting in the rest of Europe -- Summary of the digital scene in Europe -- NHK sticks with MUSE -- The early days of the Japanese HDTV market -- The MPT pushes for all-digital HDTV: the Egawa incident -- Digital multiplexing in Japan -- Conclusions -- 9 Examples of global standards -- The IBM-PC-platform -- The TCP-IP protocols -- HTML -- The Linux operating system -- The ideas of Richard Stallman -- The cathedral and the bazaar -- The open source initiative -- Government policies toward open source software -- Microsoft flghts back -- Summary -- Why was HDTV and digital television different? -- 10 Conclusions -- Summary of previous chapters -- The United States -- Japan -- Western Europe -- Theoretical implications -- The role of institutions -- The role of interests -- The role of ideas -- The role of power politics -- Conclusions -- Index.