A data field of transmitted digital television signals includes a first set of A/53-compliant data segments that convey payload information and further includes a second set of A/53-compliant data segments that contain parity bytes for transverse Reed-Solomon forward-error-correction coding of the data contained within the first set of A/53-compliant data segments. A digital television receiver uses the parity bytes in the second set of A/53-compliant data segments to implement transverse Reed-Solomon forward-error-correction decoding that corrects byte errors in the data contained in the first set of A/53-compliant data segments.