Europeans to Watch Obama Inauguration in High-Definition

Forget booking a $10,000-per-night room in Washington, D.C. for the historic inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama – the man who is, as Steve Colbert of “The Daily Show” noted, the nation’s “first Hawaiian president.”

Today, the operational service of the European Broadcasting Union reportedly announced that it would broadcast television pictures of the event in high definition, and that broadcasters from the Old World will be offered full HDTV coverage, according to the AFP, a France-based news service.

Officials at Eurovision – a company better known for an “American Idol”-like song contest – say they’re setting up record-breaking facilities to cover the inauguration because of “unprecedented demand” from broadcasters.

“All over Europe, networks are planning special programming to bring this historic day to their viewers live,” Eurovision Americas president Bill Dunlop told the AFP. “Eurovision is more than trebling the number of circuits it provided for the same event four years ago.”

The IT world is focusing on Obama today, as rumors emerge that he’s selected a former Harvard Law School to serve as Federal Communications Commission chairman.

As TMCnet reported, Julius Genachowski, who served under President Clinton, and led the Obama’s technology and innovation agenda, is a Washington, D.C. area venture capitalist.

Today, citing unnamed sources, an online broadband technology magazine, CED, reported that Obama will in fact appoint Genachowski to the post.

“The next Chairman of the FCC (News - Alert) is going to be Julius Genachowski, according to sources familiar with the choice,” CED’s Brian Santo reports.

Messages left for Genachowski and Obama’s presidential transition team were not immediately returned.

The world will have to wait to see whether Genachowski is a member of Obama’s administration come Jan. 20, when the Illinois Democrat is sworn in.

The inauguration itself is getting plenty of play in the media. After all, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and Bono are all scheduled to appear and perform at the gala.

Much of the United States is expected to follow San Francisco’s lead, in broadcasting the event on a big screen where large groups of Obama supporters can congregate.

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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan