Concern over a potential standard has caused many other digital-television consumers to delay buying a tuner that allows them to view local channels. Instead, they use their expensive televisions to watch DVDs or HDTV programming provided by satellite companies and programmers such as HBO and Discovery, the Bethesda-based cable channel. The Consumer Electronics Association estimated four years ago that nearly one-third of the country's households would have a digital television by 2006. Since then it has revised the estimate. The trade group that represents TV-set makers now predicts that less than 1 percent of the nation will have the ability to tune in a local digital station by that time.
Broadcasters insist that they have been doing their part to make the transition work.
So far there are 166 digital television stations up and running, and broadcasters insist that they are on track to meet the FCC's goal of getting every commercial digital station running by May 2002. Fritts said the cable companies could help the transition by agreeing to carry broadcasters' digital channels. But cable companies say that would require them to carry two channels with the same content. Besides, Sachs argues, every digital signal carried on a cable system would mean one fewer cable channel available to consumers. Fritts says the FCC should step into the dispute and force cable companies to carry digital signals.