ABSTRACT
Narrowcasting in the 1990s will end that scramble, because transmission technology in the form of cable TV, DBS, PPV, and digital compression has caught up with audience demand. Multiplexing and source-coding based on MPEG-2 standards could become interoperable for terrestrial and satellite broadcasts, may be derailed by noncompatible encryption, modulation, etc. These digital video compression techniques make it possible for multiple full-motion television signals to be transmitted by a single satellite transponder. Probably the most dramatic contrast to the USA lag in DBS systems is in the UK. Early in 1991, a USA company based in Seattle, proposed SkyPix, a DBS system offering eighty channels. This system, owned by Northwest Starscam, planned to offer so many channels because of the perfection of the technique of digital video compression. DBS had fewer viewers but was coming on strong in the face of two competing DBS systems.
