CBS plans on continuing its primetime HDTV initiative, which began last year with sponsorship from Mitsubishi (SHOOT, 7/4/99). However, Mitsubishi has not renewed that exclusive sponsorship contract, though it may underwrite some individual programs so they can be broadcast in HD. CBS’ VP of engineering and technology Robert Seidel told SHOOT that there should be an announcement sometime next month regarding sponsorship of HD on the network.
Speaking at a press conference held last week at CBS’ New York studios to unveil a Mitsubishi HD television and digital display monitor, Seidel noted that currently 80 percent of CBS’ programs are produced on 35mm film, which is a natural for conversion-the widescreen, super crisp images look good in HD. Seidel acknowledged, though, that "there are costs associated with the transfer from film to HD video. Our objective is to draw those costs to zero or even to make it cheaper to produce in high definition."
Of the past year during which much of CBS’ primetime schedule was broadcast in HD, Seidel related: "We wanted to experiment with programming in order to understand the costs, the production values and techniques."
He estimated that during the upcoming season, CBS would be doing as much as, if not more in HD broadcasting than it did this past year, when some 16 hours of weekly programming was in hi-def. CBS Television executive VP Martin D. Franks said that this fall, he expected that almost all of CBS’ regular primetime shows would be in HD.
Additionally, noted Seidel, CBS will broadcast five professional post-season football games in HD this fall, starting with the wild card match-up, followed by two divisional playoffs, the American Football Conference championship game and then culminating with the Super Bowl. These HD costs will be underwritten by Thomson Multimedia, which makes RCA and Proscan televisions in the U.S. Panasonic had a similar deal to underwrite ABC’s costs of airing Monday Night Football and The Super Bowl last season.
