From three direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, dozens of cable companies and more than 1100 local digital-TV stations, high-definition television (HDTV) programming is exploding into homes from coast to coast, just about everywhere the eye can see. Believe it or not, there is more HD programming available on a daily basis than one can watch. If all this doesn’t convince you that it’s time to take the plunge into HDTV, you are probably reading this issue of Digital TV Magazine in a candlelit room with a dirt floor (my sincere apologies to President Lincoln).

Broadcast Networks
As the programming grid on page TK shows, most of the filmed episodic TV shows from ABC, CBS and NBC are available in HDTV. PBS, the WB and UPN also have HD programs on their schedules, and all plan to offer even more HD in the near future. The list of sports and special events that were available in HDTV this past year included the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, the U.S. Tennis Open, The Masters Tournament, Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, the NASCAR Daytona 500, an NFL Sunday HD Game of the Week, the college football BCS Championship Game, the Grammys, the Academy Awards and even the State of the Union address. Reality TV is currently unavailable in HDTV (thank God!), but this will change in the near future. What’s the expression that comes to mind? The end of civilization as we know it? Onward and upward….