Cox, Sony & Baseball Drive the HDTV Bandwagon

[DudeAsInCool]

Ball Club Drives an HDTV Bandwagon

By KEN BELSON

Published: July 6, 2004

SAN DIEGO - Even as baseball fans filled ballparks over the July 4th weekend, a growing number were watching the games on high-definition televisions.

After years of politics, promises and false starts, high-definition television with its bigger, superior pictures and enhanced audio is finally starting to take off. Prices of high-definition sets are falling and networks like HBO and ESPN are adding hundreds of hours of high-definition programming. Most important, they are increasing the number of sports events broadcast in that format.

Sports programs are shown to particular advantage on high-definition televisons because the higher aspect ratio allows for wider pictures that can, for example, show first and third base simultaneously. The surround-sound audio can amplify the crack of the bat or a ball hitting a mitt.

With high definition, "virtually every sport becomes more like being at the stadium than with old style television," said Gary Merson, editor of The HDTV Insider Newsletter.

But as good as the pictures and audio are, cable providers, broadcasters and television makers have struggled to convince consumers that the service is worth higher monthly cable fees and the high cost of the sets. Cox Communications and Sony are hoping to make their case to consumers by teaming up with the San Diego Padres to promote high-definition television to a specific audience.

For years, cable providers have worked with manufacturers to cross-market their products. Comcast, Cablevision and other cable companies have also latched onto sports to promote their high-definition programming. Comcast, for instance, broadcasts about 150 sports events in high definition for viewers in the Philadelphia area, including the games of the 76ers and Flyers, two teams the company owns.

But the three-way deal in San Diego demonstrates a greater convergence of the broadcast, electronics and entertainment industries, one that could become a model for others.

"You've got all three points on the triangle: the distributors of the content, the display of the content and the providers of the content," said Woody Thompson, senior vice president at Octagon, the sports marketing arm of the Interpublic Group.

Read the full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/business/06hdtv.html