We begin with Mark Hawkins in London. I write in response to your comments about the start of digital TV in the USA in last weeks programmes. I was particularly interested to hear that digital terestrial TV in the US is at a higher line standard. That is one chance which we seem to have missed in Europe so far. We now have two digital TV services available to the consumer in the UK now.
Reports suggest that demand for the satellite box exceeds the supply so far.
The terrestrial box has only been in the shops for a couple of days. We have just begun the rollout of digital terrestrial television. Yes, the U.S. direct broadcast satellite television systems that are well established are transmitted digitally, but viewers are watching them on their analog television sets, by way of a converter. Now that we have digital television receivers, consumers will be able to watch terrestrial, satellite, and cable digital television on the same set, eventually. A number of transmission standards are still in contention.