Today's High-Def Headlines

Q4 Plasma Unit Sales Up, Revenue Down - TWICE
Sales of plasma display panel (PDP) TVs in the United States hit “an all-time quarterly high” in fourth quarter of 2007, as overall sales grew 5 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to a new “PDP TV Market Review” issued by Quixel Research. However, overall revenue for the PDP category was down sharply in 2007 as price pressure from the LCD TV category compressed average selling prices. In addition, Quixel noted that “there were very few 1080p models to support growth.”

Hill Lawmakers Want DTV Czar - MCN
Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and House Energy and Commerce Committee John Dingell (D-Mich.) sent President Bush a letter asking him to create a digital TV transition task force headed by Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin. “A coordinated federal effort to oversee the transition is essential,” the lawmakers said in a letter dated Feb. 8. Both lawmakers fear too many consumers are ill-informed about the most important shift in broadcast TV since the introduction of color pictures decades ago.

Martin Might Be Shifting On DBS Must Carry - MCN
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin might be retreating from his plan dealing with the carriage of local TV signals by satellite carriers DirecTV and Dish Network in early 2009 after the digital TV transition. Martin’s new approach was contained in prepared House testimony he is planning to deliver Wednesday before the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.