OfCom kills off HDTV

In article ,
Chas Gill wrote:
Several of you will no doubt be delighted (?) to peruse this little
offering, which says, amongst other things, that the Great British Public
would appear to prefer a wider choice of SD channels than free to air HD
channels

How odd. We have far too many channels already.

I wonder what the "HD Ready" manufacturing and retail
cohorts will have to say about it?

There is that compensation, of course.

-- Richard
--
"Consideration shall be given to the need for as many as 32 characters
in some alphabets" - X3.4, 1963.

"Stephen" wrote in message
...
"Chas Gill" wrote in message
...
Several of you will no doubt be delighted (?) to peruse this little
offering, which says, amongst other things, that the Great British Public
would appear to prefer a wider choice of SD channels than free to air HD
channels, so they aren't bending over backwards to provide for
Terrestrial
HD in the big spectrum sell-off (the "Digital Dividend") that will
coincide
with analogue switch off. They appear to consider that HD will, for the
time being, be a premium service that the minority will be prepared and
therefore have to pay for.

This ****es me off.

This is just wishful thinking on Ofcom's part. HD will take over
completely
on Freeview. It's inevitable because ITV want to remain primarily
terrestrial but commercials are going HD.

So ITV can charge more to advertisers for HD programming can they?

If ITV have enough bandwidth to transmit 2 HD channels or 4 normal
channels (I've no idea if this is the correct ratio) which one will give
them the most revenue to make the programs that they actually
broadcast.

ITV will have to go HD on Freeview
if only for the commercials, otherwise their advertisers, who will have
made
their commercials in HD, would be forced to go to satellite channels

This is the cart leading the horse. Is it really likely that the
advertisers
will refuse to advertise on the channel with the largest reach because
they can't make their ads in HD?

instead. ITV will not go HD on satellite only because they are not in the
business of promoting the purchase of receivers for Sky Digital.

When Ofcom says something, it's a good indication that the opposite will
happen. Their concept of Freeview was that it had to be financed by
subscription. Subscription is their answer to everything, that and a multi
billion pound windfall from mobile phone companies which is never going to
happen. The commercial reality for terrestrial is ITV for free, the same
as
it has been since 1955, and the future of ITV on Freeview is ITV HD.

In which case, either it will have to show less channel. Or it will have to
pay the going price for the bandwidth.

AIUI all OFCOM have said is that they will not reserve some of the
available (to be) spare bandwidth for (HD) TV, thus not deperesing
the price. The sale will be a free for all with the TV companies having
to fight with the telcomms companies (and others).

There will be great pressure for space on terrestrial after analogue
switch
off because of the changeover to HD on terrestrial,

Your prediction only. Few others are saying this.

and many channels like
TMF and The Hits may be paid to close to make room for ITV4 HD etc. We
will
see 3 HD channels statistically multiplexed on each multiplex (more than 3

Will we? Time will tell? The market, not you, will decide.

If it were my money I would be putting freeview HDTV down as a
commercial failure.

for HD quiz and shopping channels which will use excessively low bitrates
as
they do today), and the whole of the UHF spectrum which has been reserved
by
Ofcom for sale to Father Christmas's imaginary mobile phone operator will
be
bought by ITV and their commercial rivals instead to provide badly needed
7th and 8th Freeview multiplexes for more HDTV.

Another total spanner in the works of Ofcom's plans will be 3D HDTV. With
companies like Disney investing in "Digital 3D" Cinema because of the
commercial success of IMAX, we will have 3D Blu-Ray Discs and 3D HD DVDs

Oh, another couple of likely commercial failures.

by
the time analogue switch off is completed. Flatscreen technology (unlike
the
CRT) is easily adapted to Disney/IMAX 3D, so by 2012 the latest TV's will
not be "HD Ready", but "3D ready". People will wear their non-coloured,
polarising, IMAX-style Disney 3D glasses with the same enthusiasm with
which
they wear their iPod headphones today. Against this background we will
launch 3D HDTV.

Have you just finished reading Alice in Wonderland?

tim

"DAB sounds worse than FM" [email protected] wrote in message
...
Chas Gill wrote:
Several of you will no doubt be delighted (?) to peruse this little
offering, which says, amongst other things, that the Great British
Public would appear to prefer a wider choice of SD channels than free
to air HD channels, so they aren't bending over backwards to provide
for Terrestrial HD in the big spectrum sell-off (the "Digital
Dividend") that will coincide with analogue switch off. They appear
to consider that HD will, for the time being, be a premium service
that the minority will be prepared and therefore have to pay for.

This ****es me off. I wonder what the "HD Ready" manufacturing and
retail cohorts will have to say about it? I'm not sure I would have
bought my HD ready flat panel if I'd known this a month ago. Ready
for what? Years of having to pay through the nose, that's what!

If you want to know more/wish to have your say follow this link
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/ddr/

Bah Humbug!


It hasn't killed off HDTV on Freeview, I think they're merely making the
broadcasters bid for the new spectrum if they want extra spectrum for
HDTV.

Yep. But I think they would have to bid for it anyway. It's just
they they get to compete with all the possible users instead of
just other TV broadcasters

tim




--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.php
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/dab_radios.php

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:22:49 GMT, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
[email protected] wrote:

It hasn't killed off HDTV on Freeview, I think they're merely making the
broadcasters bid for the new spectrum if they want extra spectrum for HDTV.

There are other clues out there. A certain new broadcasting centre, to
open in the middle of next year, has an end to end tapeless digital HD
workflow but has just fitted SD Presentation and Transmission suites.
Go figure..

I advise people to go to the Supermarkets and buy those 28 inch tube
SD TVs until this mess is all sorted out. It looks like it will take
years.

--
Z

"tim....." wrote in message
...

"Stephen" wrote in message
...
"Chas Gill" wrote in message
...
Several of you will no doubt be delighted (?) to peruse this little
offering, which says, amongst other things, that the Great British
Public
would appear to prefer a wider choice of SD channels than free to air
HD
channels, so they aren't bending over backwards to provide for
Terrestrial
HD in the big spectrum sell-off (the "Digital Dividend") that will
coincide
with analogue switch off. They appear to consider that HD will, for
the
time being, be a premium service that the minority will be prepared and
therefore have to pay for.

This ****es me off.

This is just wishful thinking on Ofcom's part. HD will take over
completely
on Freeview. It's inevitable because ITV want to remain primarily
terrestrial but commercials are going HD.

So ITV can charge more to advertisers for HD programming can they?

No, but they'll have to give a big discount for advertising on their low
res. channels if most of the rest have gone HD. What I'm predicting is that
SD will be seen as an "out of date" system that no-one wants to be
assocaited with, like AM radio or black & white TV.

If ITV have enough bandwidth to transmit 2 HD channels or 4 normal
channels (I've no idea if this is the correct ratio) which one will give
them the most revenue to make the programs that they actually
broadcast.

Depends on whether most of the competition is HD or SD.

ITV will have to go HD on Freeview
if only for the commercials, otherwise their advertisers, who will have
made
their commercials in HD, would be forced to go to satellite channels

This is the cart leading the horse. Is it really likely that the
advertisers
will refuse to advertise on the channel with the largest reach because
they can't make their ads in HD?

No, but channels like Sky One which are already HD and have a pretty large
reach anyway will still start to look more attractive.

instead. ITV will not go HD on satellite only because they are not in
the
business of promoting the purchase of receivers for Sky Digital.

When Ofcom says something, it's a good indication that the opposite will
happen. Their concept of Freeview was that it had to be financed by
subscription. Subscription is their answer to everything, that and a
multi
billion pound windfall from mobile phone companies which is never going
to
happen. The commercial reality for terrestrial is ITV for free, the same
as
it has been since 1955, and the future of ITV on Freeview is ITV HD.

In which case, either it will have to show less channel. Or it will have
to
pay the going price for the bandwidth.

Depends who is setting the prices.

AIUI all OFCOM have said is that they will not reserve some of the
available (to be) spare bandwidth for (HD) TV, thus not deperesing
the price. The sale will be a free for all with the TV companies having
to fight with the telcomms companies (and others).

There will be great pressure for space on terrestrial after analogue
switch off because of the changeover to HD on terrestrial,

Your prediction only. Few others are saying this.

and many channels like
TMF and The Hits may be paid to close to make room for ITV4 HD etc. We
will
see 3 HD channels statistically multiplexed on each multiplex (more than
3

Will we? Time will tell? The market, not you, will decide.

If it were my money I would be putting freeview HDTV down as a
commercial failure.

for HD quiz and shopping channels which will use excessively low
bitrates
as
they do today), and the whole of the UHF spectrum which has been
reserved
by
Ofcom for sale to Father Christmas's imaginary mobile phone operator
will
be
bought by ITV and their commercial rivals instead to provide badly
needed
7th and 8th Freeview multiplexes for more HDTV.

Another total spanner in the works of Ofcom's plans will be 3D HDTV.
With
companies like Disney investing in "Digital 3D" Cinema because of the
commercial success of IMAX, we will have 3D Blu-Ray Discs and 3D HD DVDs

Oh, another couple of likely commercial failures.

Depends how they do it. Colour TV was a commercial failure for years before
it took off in America.

by
the time analogue switch off is completed. Flatscreen technology (unlike
the
CRT) is easily adapted to Disney/IMAX 3D, so by 2012 the latest TV's
will
not be "HD Ready", but "3D ready". People will wear their non-coloured,
polarising, IMAX-style Disney 3D glasses with the same enthusiasm with
which
they wear their iPod headphones today. Against this background we will
launch 3D HDTV.

Have you just finished reading Alice in Wonderland?

Every stage of the development of TV has seemed like Alice in Wonderland.

In message , Stephen
writes
No, but they'll have to give a big discount for advertising on their low res.
channels if most of the rest have gone HD. What I'm predicting is that SD
will be seen as an "out of date" system that no-one wants to be
assocaited with, like AM radio or black & white TV.

My AM radio is still working fine thank you, decades after the launch of
FM. I am perfectly happy to still be associated with it, especially when
it contains content not available via FM!

Bob

On 20 Dec 2006 03:24:10 -0800, "Mark Carver"
wrote:


Marky P wrote:


I got into Laserdisc 6 months before the introduction of DVD. I
thought DVD would never take off....

About ten years ago I was sat in a pub with a friend. He was fiddling
with his new phone, tapping things into the keypad. "What are you doing
?" I asked. "Oh, I'm sending a text message to someone". "What a
ridiculous pointless idea, who on earth will bother with that, why not
just ring them up FFS !"

(Said the man who bought Betamax, Texas TI-99, and MiniDisc. )

I still say that to my daughter - I've tried explaining that it's
often cheaper to ring than to texr

--
Cheers

Peter

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