KICU'S DT revenue ride is short-lived

[Gregg Lengling]

Broadcasting & Cable
12/9/2002 10:54:00 AM
   KICU-DT San Jose, Calif., raised few eyebrows at the Federal Communications Commission last week by reporting that it took in $90,000 over 12 months for its digital data-transmission service.

That kind of money is a staggering amount for a digital-TV ancillary service that few predict will get beyond the drawing board any time soon.

The skeptics are right. In a letdown to the FCC's effort to promote any business plan for digital TV, KICU's digital cash dried up after a three-year deal with Intel Corp. to test Internet, software downloads and other services via broadcasters' digital spectrum expired.

"Unfortunately, our datacasting revenue next year will be zero, like everyone else," said Jeff Block, vice president of KTVU Partnership, the Cox Broadcasting Inc. subsidiary that owns KICU.

Digital stations last week last were required to report to the FCC on their digital-TV ancillary services.

Only a handful are earning any revenue from add-on services to conventional digital-television programming. Others include WKRC-DT Cincinnati, $8,280 for high-speed Internet; KSL-DT Salt Lake City, $8,000 for interactive TV; and KQED-DT San Francisco, $2,000 for data transmissions.

More reports are expected to trickle in this week.