AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

MALE VOICE: I was standing on the sidelines, thinking about the problem that faces us in measuring the digital TV experience, and I'd like to take this opportunity to announce my early retirement from research. [LAUGHTER]

MALE VOICE: There are numbers that show that DTV television at thirty percent penetration by 2006. If the government doesn't change its mind, and does in fact take back the analog signal, can the DTV sets, the analog sets, be able to receive a DTV signal? I mean, how is seventy percent of the United States going to watch television?

MR. ENOCH: That's the key question. New digital sets will receive the analog signals. That's what we've been told by the manufacturers. However, analog sets will not receive the digital signals without either a, without a conversion box of some type, or cable systems doing the conversion for them. So that's a good question about how fast this market's going to move, and can, in fact, the Congress say the channels are going to be given back in 2006 if, in fact, only thirty percent of the public is able to receive them by that time?

MR. ELLIOT: Well, I think that the, if I'm correct, there is an additional threshold that says, in markets where fewer than 85 percent of the households can receive digital signals, then they don't have to give back the analog signals. So I think the intent of the regulation was to leave no more than fifteen percent disenfranchised, if you will. So these numbers that Dave has shown suggest to me that there will an awful lot of markets that will have both channels beyond 2006.

MALE VOICE: Continuing just on that one second, the SDTV, is it a wide screen also, or is it purely a four by three?

MR. ELLIOT: It can be either.

MALE VOICE: Just out of curiosity, when downloading a program, because that's what I envision, is you calling your cable company or your phone company or somebody and saying, okay, send over Seinfeld, and you're downloading Seinfeld, it seems to me that like a CD, since this is digital, when it comes time for the first commercial break, you hit a button, you just passed all the commercials and you're back in the show. And, I mean, this scares me to begin with. This is a lot of money, a lot of investment, a lot of hard work. Stations locally can be showing (inaudible) nationally, to cover the whole DMA, and then locally to cover all the individual zone, and it seems to me selling itself is really going to change also. But that would be possible, right? People don't have to watch commercials on shows they order and download?

MR. ENOCH: Somebody take that man out and have him killed. [LAUGHTER]

MALE VOICE: Just asking.

MR. EVERETT: You basically can do the same thing with a VCR right now, and on a lot of VCRs you have, there's a skip button, and it skips, automatically skips a minute, and then, so you hit it twice, two minutes, it's gone.

MR. ENOCH: We have more questions than we have answers, and I think we have time for one more.

MALE VOICE: Just a quick one, David. Your bottom line was, this whole thing's consumer driven. Just like everything really is. Who is doing the primary research on what the consumer wants? This seems like it could be a great thing for TVB.

MR. ELLIOT: I've heard of a few small ventures, but this seems to me to cry out clearly for a major effort in market research.

MR. ENOCH: I have a hard time believing that there isn't a wealth of proprietary research that's been done out there that we just aren't privy to. Also, although I haven't spoken to my colleagues at NAB about this specifically, I certainly would like to get some kind of a project together under the auspices of NAB, perhaps working with some academic partners, and try to get a handle on that and the way that we can share, you know, in a somewhat less proprietary way.

MALE VOICE: Glenn, can I ask a quick question of Dave?

MR. ENOCH: Sure.

MODERATOR: How do I get the clock to stop flashing on my VCR? [LAUGHTER]

MR. ELLIOT: I don't know.

MR. ENOCH: Thank you, Dick, and with that comment, we have another session to move on. Thank you very much, gentlemen.