Las Vegas -- MCI Communications Corp. entered the
high-definition television arena last week by announcing plans to carry digital broadcasts
over its nationwide fiber optic long-haul network.
The first takers, NBC and LIN Television, began testing the
service earlier this month, with a live broadcast in Dallas of the opening day Texas
Rangers Major League Baseball game. The game was produced by LIN and broadcast by
NBC's KXAS/Channel 5 in HDTV format. While no Dallas-area baseball fans have digital
or HDTV sets yet, they were able to watch the event at a nearby Circuit City store, which
was provided with a Zenith Electronics Corp. HDTV set for the game.
Charles Jablonski, NBC's vice president of
engineering, said MCI's network "will enable us to provide live programming to
our HDTV viewers with the same ease as studio-produced productions."
