If you think the computer industry swept the whole world before it when Microsoft Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and Intel Corp tried to muscle what looks a very restrictive standard on the television – an initiative we polemically billed as Microsoft team seeks to dictate digital television norms (CI No 3,137), Robert Graves will put you right. The computer industry must think broadcasters are just plain stupid, he told the New York Times, and he’s not just speaking for himself – he’s chairman of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which sets broadcast television standards. The body is to start a certification program and only digital televisions and computers that bear the committee’s seal will be certified to receive transmissions in all the formats. Craig Mundie, senior vice president at Microsoft Corp, threatened apropos the television standards battle that The broadcast industry is going to wall itself off from where the action is, and sought to chill the flesh with a doom-laden It is not at all clear that broadcast television is going to remain a viable business – after all, it took a mere 20 years for color television to catch on in the US.
