Presidential Address in High-Def

ABC News produced Tuesday night’s State of the Union address by President Bush in HDTV, shared the feed with CBS, NBC and Fox (which broadcasted it in wide-screen) and also made it available to other domestic and international broadcasters and satellite channels.

"By working with our network colleagues," said ABC News President David Westin, "we are exploring the use of HDTV for coverage of major news events." In the past, most HDTV news coverage has been limited to presidential conventions.

HD-standards converters are to be used to make the broadcast available into whichever HDTV standard the networks wished to use. ABC broadcasts in 720p, NBC and CBS in 1080i, and Fox in 480p.