The Super Bowl, with the Steelers an expected participant, is still a month away, but the prospects of Pittsburgh-area viewers who own high-definition televisions seeing the game in the spectacular clarity offered by this medium remain only slight.

The game will be carried nationally by Fox. The local Fox outlet, WPGH, is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting.

Negotiations are ongoing between Sinclair and the area's major cable carriers, but they don't look promising.

Cable carriers must negotiate contracts with television stations for the right to retransmit their broadcasts. None of the three major cable carriers serving western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and the panhandle of West Virginia have been able to negotiate such an agreement with Sinclair for WPGH's high-definition signal.

Sources inside the cable industry maintain that it is Fox's insistence on being paid for this service, which is not customary, that is lessening the chances of an agreement.

"Sinclair has been adamant that they will take only cash for that signal and we're not willing to pay that," said one cable company source.

The local carriers are Comcast, which has about 580,000 customers, Adelphia, which has about 225,000, and Armstrong, which has about 135,000. In almost every case, these carriers have been able to obtain agreements with stations to retransmit their high-definition programming. The notable exception is Sinclair.

Adelphia and Armstrong report they have agreements with the three major network stations in Pittsburgh, KDKA, WPXI and WTAE, along with ESPN, Discovery and several premium channels. Comcast has agreements with all of those stations except WPXI.

But Sinclair's WPGH is a holdout with all three carriers.

In cities where the Fox outlet is not owned by Sinclair, Cleveland and Philadelphia being two of them, agreements have been reached and the Super Bowl will be shown in high definition.

Alan Frank, the general manager of Fox, did not respond to telephone requests for an interview for this story.

Cable carriers usually do not pay for the right to retransmit broadcasts because retransmission benefits both sides. The cable carriers take the broadcasts into areas over-the-air television cannot reach. This increases the size of the audience and enables the broadcasters to receive more in advertising revenues. The cable companies profit from selling the broadcast signals to customers.

"Sinclair is entitled to run its business the way it wants," said the industry source. "But it's the fans who are suffering. They are not able to see high definition. Very few other broadcasters share their philosophy."

All three cable providers said they will continue to negotiate. None were hopeful of a settlement before the Super Bowl.