Freesat Launch

[John Duncan]

So is the Freesat launch "Tuesday's Huge Story", or is there another?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Does this mean that Sky HD owners can get a decent ITV picture now? Or do you need a FreeSat box?

 

[John Duncan]

Well, two things - firstly, I don't know whether ITV HD will be broadcast on Sky. Secondly, this will first require ITV to start broadcasting its HD channel, which you'll notice hasn't happened yet.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I've just looked else where and it looks like ITV HD will start soon but exclusively via FreeSat! Laughable. It's such a bad picture in SD on ITV that it would make a big difference to me - especially with the Euro 2008 on soon.

 

[John Duncan]

Maybe not so laughable if you were - say - competing broadcasters

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Chewing this one over, it may turn out to be good for Sky HD subscribers. If Freesat offer C4 HD, ITV HD and BBC HD, I would imagine a lot of people would cancel their Virgin subscriptions especially and Sky HD would have to start bringing more channels to the table in HD. Otherwise, I would imagine there would be a shortage of subscribers willing to fork out for an HD box, £10 a month more for less (of any worth) HD channels and then a further £10-£15 a month more for films and sport in HD. These would be the only exclusive channels really and would be costing £25 a month more than Freesat.

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]Maybe not so laughable if you were - say - competing broadcasters

[/quote]

Surely, with ITV's finances as they are, the focus is on getting as many viewers for its programmes (and therefore adverts) as possible?

Excluding the largest installed base of HD viewers - Sky HD has more than half a million subscribers - does seem a rather suspect commercial strategy...

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, and I was being slightly facetious, though the commercials may very well come into it, since as I understand it you have to pay to get on Sky, and it's about twice the price of a slot on Freesat - so if you can get all of those HD viewers for half the price............

Furthermore, I don't know that HD watching is currently included in the BARB figures, because of the way in which audience ratings are calculated (I'll check) - in which case ITV's income would be completely unaffected

.

Anyway, I suspect (purely my own opinion) that ITV HD *will* end up on Sky and it's technological or commercial wranglings that would be the source of any delay in doing so.

 

[John Duncan]

Aaaaaaanwyay - was that the "huge story" you mentioned last week?

 

[Anonymous]

i have just seen the humax freesat box in use at my local comet. The bbc hd chanel didnt look as good as it does on sky hd.

This was on a panasonic th42px8 (not px80)

and its a pretty ugly and flimsy bit of kit

 

[Anonymous]

did anyone else get to see it today