Dolby Buys MIT's DTV Vote for $30 Million

An anonymous reader writes "MIT's campus newspaper, The Tech is reporting that the university will be receiving $30 million from Dolby Laboratories. This payment is in return for MIT's vote on the "Grand Alliance" committee responsible for choosing the audio standard for digital television (DTV). Dolby also appears to have paid off Zenith, another committee member. The professor representing MIT on the committee stands to receive $8 million personally. But here's where it gets truly odd. After dutifully voting for the Dolby standard, MIT attempted to collect on the bribe, but Dolby refused to pay. So, MIT sued to collect. In the end, MIT and Dolby settled out of court. Says The Tech, "There's clearly a conflict of interest," [MIT's Jack] Turner, [associate director of the Technology Licensing Office] says, but, "it can't be avoided. MIT's reputation as being pure... in its academic evaluation of things is very important." Yeah sure."

Comments

Quick scan of the article

[Bobulusman]

The MIT people choose the format they did because they would have made $8 million in royalties and the like. (This was 1993)

Then, in 1997, they had a royalty dispute with Dolby over the royalties. The settlement out of court is the $30 million mentioned.

The interesting part is that that 1993 decision helped make US digital tv use dolby instead of mpeg, like they apparently use in Europe

Re:The FCC is bungling DTV

[Twirlip of the Mists]

You know, I do feel obligated to point out that ATSC-standard digital television signals using the 8VSB standard have been broadcast in the US full-time since 1998. You can receive 8VSB transmissions-- for free-- with nothing more than a decent pair of rabbit-ears, or, as in my case, with an inexpensive rooftop antenna. In my house, we watch at least six or eight hours of HDTV a week, and have been since the summer. Just last night, ABC broadcast Saving Private Ryan uncut and unedited in HDTV with, yeah, Dolby Digital sound.

You can also get HDTV via satellite-- HBO and Showtime have HDTV channels-- and in some markets via cable.

It's a gross exaggeration to say that the DTV system in the US is "bungled" or "broken."