BBC Trust approves Freesat

Although it doesn't even mention it in this article, I've read elsewhere
that Freesat receivers will support MPEG-4 H.264 for HDTV, so Freesat should
be the first mass-market system on which we'll get proper free-to-air HDTV -
hurrah. And the BBC Trust is apparently holding a Public Value Test (and all
that kind of crap that they do) to look at whether the BBC should launch a
full-time HDTV channel, so presumably they'll say yes, and hopefully ITV, C4
and Five might follow suit - you can but hope.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...067033,00.html

BBC Trust approves Freesat


Tara Conlan
Friday April 27, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

The BBC Trust has given the final thumbs-up to launching Freesat, a
free-to-view digital satellite TV service.

After a public consultation, the corporation's regulatory body has confirmed
a provisional decision it made in February to give the new venture the
go-ahead.

The BBC Trust received around 700 responses to the Freesat consultation and
said today that "an overwhelming majority of respondents, 93%, considered
that the BBC should be taking action to improve access to its digital
services in the lead-up to digital switchover".

Despite the existence of Freeview and BSkyB's own offering of free satellite
services to customers who pay an installation free of £150, the BBC Trust
found that 62% of people said the current access to BBC digital channels was
"unacceptable".

In addition, 92% thought the proposals would "benefit consumers" and 90%
thought it unlikely that Freesat would dramatically damage the existing ways
of receiving digital TV.

However, the approval does come with some strings attached.

The BBC Trust said Freesat would be required to show that other broadcasters
who signed up to distribute TV and radio channels via the new satellite
service were not being subsidised by the licence fee.

In addition, Freeview should be kept "operationally separate from its
involvement with Freesat to minimise any potential effect on competition".

Also, the BBC "must retain sufficient control over the decisions taken by
the [Freesat] joint venture to ensure that the BBC's public service
objectives are not undermined" and ensure "there is always an ability to
access Freesat on a subscription-free basis".

Freesat is expected to offer up to 300 TV and radio channels - compared with
around 75 that are currently available through Freeview.

It is due to launch by the time the Borders region switches off its analogue
signal in 2008-2009 and will operate on a not-for-profit basis.

The trust wants Freesat to be "future-proofed" by ensuring it could offer
high-definition TV and personal video recorder compatibility.

The BBC said the likely potential cost would be "modest - very substantially
below the levels at which we would need to give our authority to BBC
management to invest and comparable with what the BBC contributes to the
Freeview joint venture and associated technical infrastructure".

The trust said it hoped that other public service broadcasters will sign up
to Freesat and will share the costs of the new joint venture.

However, it admitted that commercial rivals had issues with Freesat.

"Of course not all responses were favourable. Virgin Media and BSkyB both
questioned the general proposition that it should be the role of a public
sector organisation to provide competition in a free market," the trust
said.

"BSkyB welcomed the new competition and thought increased choice for
consumers was positive, but took issue with the fact that, in its view, the
trust appeared to accept without reservation that it was appropriate 'for
state-owned entities to be used as instruments of industrial or competition
policy'.

"Virgin Media made a similar point that they have a 'natural bias against
public intervention'."

However, the trust said it decided to go ahead with Freesat as it would "be
of significant public value" for licence fee payers, by addressing
"inadequate access to the BBC's digital services in the lead-up to
switchover".

The trust also pointed out: "BSkyB is under no regulatory obligation to
provide subscription-free access and we think it reasonable to conclude that
it does so as a commercial choice.

"So there is no guarantee that there would remain a subscription-free route
to access BBC services in the future. As with any commercial proposition,
BSkyB could at any point choose to withdraw or change the terms of this
service subject to normal notice provisions."

The acting chair of the BBC Trust, Chitra Bharucha, said: "The BBC Trust has
decided to approve the proposition that the BBC invests in a joint venture
to offer a national satellite based free-to-view digital service.

"In reaching this decision we have considered the likely benefits to the
licence fee payer, the public value created and the potential market
impact."

The trust admitted it was "unfortunate" it has taken so long for Freesat to
be approved, saying the BBC had originally planned to launch the service
before digital switchover begins in the Cumbrian town of Whitehaven this
autumn.

Freesat was first proposed in 2003 and then outlined formally by the BBC and
ITV in September 2005, when it was envisaged it would launch in the first
half of 2006.

At the moment Freeview, the digital terrestrial service that does not
require subscription, reaches only three-quarters of UK homes, though its
penetration will increase as digital transmission signals are strengthened
in coming years with the region by region switch-off of analogue terrestrial
TV.

With 7m households, mainly in rural areas, still watching analogue TV just
one year before the region-by-region switch-off begins, Freesat is one way
of helping to speed up the transition.

Meanwhile, the BBC Trust has also decided to conduct a full public value
test on a new high definition TV channel.


--
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

DAB is the Betamax of digital radio wrote:
Although it doesn't even mention it in this article,


Sorry, it does briefly mention that it will support HDTV.


--
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

DAB is the Betamax of digital radio wrote:

It is due to launch by the time the Borders region switches off its
analogue signal in 2008-2009 and will operate on a not-for-profit
basis.


I think it's a disgrace that they've been allowed to wait until just before
digital switchover before they're launching Freesat, because Freesat was
first touted about 3 or maybe even 4 years ago, and they've done bugger all,
basically for the reason that Greg Dyke admitted to after he'd left the BBC
which is that Freeview was launched in order to "flood the UK market with
dumb set-top boxes" (I think those were his words) so they didn't have card
slots so they wouldn't accept subscription so that the BBC could get another
decade's worth of secured funding. And them launching Freesat at the last
possible moment before switchover shows that they really want as many people
to get Freeview as possible, even though Freeview is heavily bandwidth
constrained, so providing HDTV is going to be a squeeze even after analogue
TV has been switched off and the Freeview multiplex capacities will
increase, whereas providing it on satellite is a piece of **** due to the
enormous bandwidth at their disposal - and I read Ashley Highfield, the
BBC's Director of Future Media & Technology (officially the most ridiculous
departmental name in the history of departmental names) say that it costs
£7m to broadcast a TV channel on Freeview and £700,000 on satellite (and
£70,000 using Internet multicasting), so basically they could easily launch
their TV channels in HD on satellite, but of course Sky is the big enemy, so
they want to provide as little incentive as possible for people to get
satellite - without making it obvious to everybody that they're trying to
avoid satellite, because then they'd come under fire.

Typical self-serving BBC...


The trust admitted it was "unfortunate" it has taken so long for
Freesat to be approved,


No **** Sherlock!


saying the BBC had originally planned to
launch the service before digital switchover begins in the Cumbrian
town of Whitehaven this autumn.

Freesat was first proposed in 2003 and then outlined formally by the
BBC and ITV in September 2005, when it was envisaged it would launch
in the first half of 2006.


Yeah, and WTF happened to it then?? Freeview sales took off, that's what
bloody happened, and screw what the public wants.

Basically, if it had been the other way round and launching Freesat would
have benefited the BBC and harmed Sky (hypothetically speaking, obviously),
if it was proposed in 2003 they'd have got the bugger up and running by
2004. They're a disgrace edited personal opinion about how I think the BBC
should be funded, because I don't want to spark off another pro vs anti
Licence Fee debate which seem to have a habit of going on for several days.


Meanwhile, the BBC Trust has also decided to conduct a full public
value test on a new high definition TV channel.


And about bloody time for that as well! If it were possible to launch it on
Freeview how long do you think it would have taken the BBC to apply to the
BBC Trust for permission - about 35 milliseconds, probably.....

/rant


--
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 Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:34:42 GMT, "DAB is the Betamax of digital
radio" [email protected] wrote:

Although it doesn't even mention it in this article, I've read elsewhere
that Freesat receivers will support MPEG-4 H.264 for HDTV, so Freesat should
be the first mass-market system on which we'll get proper free-to-air HDTV -
hurrah. And the BBC Trust is apparently holding a Public Value Test (and all
that kind of crap that they do) to look at whether the BBC should launch a
full-time HDTV channel, so presumably they'll say yes, and hopefully ITV, C4
and Five might follow suit - you can but hope.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...067033,00.html

BBC Trust approves Freesat


Snip

Shame, by then they'll have nothing on worth showing in HD. Well
unless you like on-screen logos, scrolly text, jaunty camera angles
and "edgy" production values.

"DAB is the Betamax of digital radio" [email protected] wrote in message
...

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...067033,00.html

BBC Trust approves Freesat

It would have been much better if the digital switchover was to be straight
from analogue to digital satellite given the reception problems associated
with terrestrial broadcasting. Thus ending terrestrial television
broadcasting. Why are they bothering with the vast expense of equipping
terrestial transmitters for digital other than as Steve quotes Greg Dyke, to
maintain the BBC licence status.

BBC channels are already FTA available on satellite, so I'm not quite sure
what extra the BBC free sat system is going to provide, and why its taking
three years to set up. Clearly I have fallen asleep at the back.

Roger R

Max wrote in :


Shame, by then they'll have nothing on worth showing in HD. Well
unless you like on-screen logos, scrolly text, jaunty camera angles
and "edgy" production values.

But you'll need a High Definition set during the 2012 Olympics so that you
can see the exertion on the faces of the winners in stunning detail and
still have enough definition in the picture to see the British athletes
waaaaaaay back in the distance as well as being able to make out the
obscene hand gestures from the home crowd.

--
____________________________
Moley

Roger R wrote:
"DAB is the Betamax of digital radio" [email protected] wrote in message
...

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...067033,00.html

BBC Trust approves Freesat

It would have been much better if the digital switchover was to be
straight from analogue to digital satellite given the reception
problems associated with terrestrial broadcasting. Thus ending
terrestrial television broadcasting. Why are they bothering with
the vast expense of equipping terrestial transmitters for digital
other than as Steve quotes Greg Dyke, to maintain the BBC licence
status.


I wouldn't go as far as to say that DTT should be abandoned altogether,
because virtually everybody has got a TV aerial, so it makes sense to use
DTT, and not everybody can put a satellite dish on the outside of their
house/flat etc, and others still wouldn't want to. All I'm ****ed off about
is that they could have launched it ages ago - MPEG-4 set-top boxes have
been available for some time now - if they'd have wanted to, but they chose
not to for self-serving reasons.


BBC channels are already FTA available on satellite, so I'm not quite
sure what extra the BBC free sat system is going to provide,


It'll provide a non-Sky EPG, have MPEG-4 support for HDTV, and the BBC will
probably advertise it (although because it doesn't help them they no doubt
won't advertise it as much as they could or should, especially considering
how much advertising they've lavished on Freeview over the years), so
they'll generate substantial interest and a market for MPEG-4 set-top boxes
that wouldn't have existed without their advertising.

It'll be interesting to see whether they launch a package where people pay
for the receiver and installation at the same time, or whether there'll be a
lot of Rod Hull moments. And it'll be interesting to see how much it'll cost
as well.


and why
its taking three years to set up.


I think it's clear that they've stalled it for as long as they could humanly
stall it without coming under serious attack, and the feedback to that
consultation shows that the vast majority don't think what the BBC has done
has been good enough, so they've got away with it by the skin of their teeth
by the looks of it. It's just unfortunate that our politicians are
technically inept, so even the ones who don't like the BBC have missed out
on criticising them about this because they're so bloody technically inept.



--
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

"DAB is the Betamax of digital radio" [email protected] wrote in message
...
DAB is the Betamax of digital radio wrote:
And about bloody time for that as well! If it were possible to launch it
on Freeview how long do you think it would have taken the BBC to apply to
the BBC Trust for permission - about 35 milliseconds, probably.....

Can't you be more precise?

Bill

"if" wrote in message
...
"DAB is the Betamax of digital radio" [email protected] wrote:
...

You've got a weird moniker there, surely DAB is the VHS of digital radio.
The Betamax would be MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, the superior format which lost
out.

Yes Steve, why don't you change it to 'DAB is the greaseproof paper of
sandwich wrappers' or 'DAB is the steam engine of mechanically propelled
road vehicles' or DAB is the 78rpm shellac disk of audio recording' or 'DAB
is the horrid rubber things they used for contraception before latex was
invented in the 1920s that were like wanking into a sock' -- or something
snappy like that?

Bill

"if" wrote in message
...
"DAB is the Betamax of digital radio" [email protected] wrote:
...

You've got a weird moniker there, surely DAB is the VHS of digital radio.
The Betamax would be MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, the superior format which lost
out.

Yes I cringe a bit when I see Steve new sig for that very reason.
"Sinclair C-5" or "wax cylinder" would be my suggestions.

I have to confess I actually bought a DAB radio yesterday
Purely to hear how bad it sounds you understand,
I was not disappointed IYKWIM. Plus the processor hash
audible during the dead-air bits on Radio 3 comes at no extra charge.
--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%