PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Going HD

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PBS is adding 260 hours of HD programming to its lineup, or about double its current total, and that's just from one show.

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will begin broadcasting in HD Dec. 17, including teaming up with PBS to cover the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions in HD.

The program is produced out of WETA Washington, D.C., which built a new HD-friendly set for the show in part with money from the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.

PBS said the show will produce 24 hours of convention coverage from the Democrats' conclave Aug. 25-28 in Denver and the Republicans' gathering Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn.

The conversion means analog viewers of the show will see it in letterbox form. PBS will deliver both standard-definition and HD versions of the show, with the SD version downconverted from the HD, which accounts for the letterboxing.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.