Summary of previous chapters

There were two clear turning points in the history of the debates over high definition and digital TV (HDTV and DTV). In 1988, the US government chose not to adopt the Japanese standard and instead looked for an all-digital standard to succeed the existing standard for color TV (NTSC). The second turning point was the adoption of a US digital television standard in 1993 and subsequent reactions to that in Western Europe and Japan. Thus, we are left trying to explain outcomes in three periods:

• Period 1: beginning with the development of an HDTV standard in Japan in the early 1980s and ending with the US rejection of that standard in 1988;

• Period 2: beginning with the rejection of the Japanese standard in 1988 and ending with the adoption of a digital television (DTV) standard in 1993 in the US;

• Period 3: from 1993 to the present.

I will try to summarize below what happened during the three periods for each industrialized region: the United States, Japan, and Western Europe.

There was a distinctly game-like quality to these standards debates. Business players were seeking advantage both in domestic markets and in international competition; national governments were lobbied by a combination of domestic and international interests and were maneuvering for advantage with other governments.