Freesat HD, greedy for more...

[ThunderPants73]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know if there will be more Freesat HD channels coming up? BBC HD is very limited and ITV HD is quite honestly, a joke with sometimes nothing on at all.

[nodrogd]

Channel 4 has a contract with sky and will not come to Freesat until it terminates.

Five looks likley to have secured one of the slots on freeview HD and I can't see them not extending to Freesat.

All the other HD material being broadcast is subscription at the moment.

You have to look at it in the context of what is already available on Freesat. Look at the broadcasters already on there and ask yourself which of them are making, or are likely to buy the rights to, any HD content which they could then broadcast. The answer is, not many of them.

Most HD programmes broadcast to the UK are premium content - movies and sports - with some documentary and drama, but don't be fooled by the plethora of HD channels on Sky as a lot of what's broadcast on them is just upscaled SD stuff. Freesat, on the other hand, is not a premium content platform.

The BBC will continue to increase its HD output, as will ITV, although probably not as quickly. As has already been noted, Five seems to be gearing up for it. C4 has, as usual, got iself stuck with a contract that ties it exclusively to Sky that probably seemed like a great idea at the time they signed it (goodness only knows why - you would have thought they learned that lesson after tying e4 and more4 into the Sky epg, and they've not long since extricated themselves from that). There are well-founded, but unconfirmed reports that 4HD's exclusivity deal with Sky will expire near the end of this year and that the channel will arrive on Freesat immediately that happens. So, hopefully in time for Christmas.

Beyond that, you can get Luxe HD if you put the box in non-Freesat mode and scan for it; beyond that, well, a lot of free-to-air SD channels aren't even broadcasting 16:9 yet, so that probably gives you some idea how long it will be before HD is the norm!

Another thought on this, in the light of the Freeview HD thread that's going on elsewhere...

Remember that Freeview cannot ever provide the same quantity or quality of HD that Freesat can. There simply isn't enough bandwidth. You can thank Ofcom for that; they are determined to flog off the analogue UHF spectrum to the highest bidder after 2012, rather than releasing it for new digital muxes carrying HD channels.

They are now trying to cover this indefensible decision by re-jigging the existing digital spectrum to accommodate some HD channels. As a result, the existing SD channels on Freeview will get their bitrates cut, the new HD channels will broadcast at lower bitrates than those with Sky have come to expect, and they will be limited to 720p. Granted that only sports and movies tend to get the full 1080 at the moment, but the technology is there for top-quality drama to be made and broadcast in 1080p in future should the broadcasters wish to utilise it. Only they will never be able to bradcast it on Freeview HD.

Freesat, on the other hand, has vastly more bandwidth available. Ask yourself where British TV broadcasting is going to be in 10 years when most if not all of our original programming is made in HD and there is no longer any need for specialist channels like BBC-HD and 4HD. What will the BBC do when it simply wants to broadcast HD versions of all its channels? It will not be able to do that on Freeview.

I think that long term, the writing's on the wall for terrestrial broadcasting in the UK. We are going to end up with satellite as the default platform for FTA TV. Look how keen manufacturers are to develop integrated Freesat TVs - they can see which way things are going. Panasonic and LG are already on the market and Sony is expected to join them in time for Christmas.

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by Chris

Another thought on this, in the light of the
I think that long term, the writing's on the wall for terrestrial broadcasting in the UK. We are going to end up with satellite as the default platform for FTA TV. Look how keen manufacturers are to develop integrated Freesat TVs - they can see which way things are going. Panasonic and LG are already on the market and Sony is expected to join them in time for Christmas.

I've been thinking that ever since Sky & BSB started broadcasting years ago. Namely broadcasting national channels on terrestial is inefficent compared to satellite. What we need is to reserve 10 or so UHF channels for local TV to set up and sell the rest off. Looks as if radio is going the same way with sub standard DAB replacing good quailty FM.