Government set to allow TV networks to broadcast their primary channels in HD
AFL and NRL fans may soon be able to watch their favourite codes in high definition on TV after the Federal Government moved to repeal a law which forces TV networks to broadcast their primary channels in standard definition.
Networks Seven, Nine and Ten all welcomed the move to amend the current laws, with a Bill to be introduced as early as tomorrow but Seven has also warned that the changes need to come with the removal of other “regulatory constraints”, specifically a reduction in licence fees.
The move is likely to appease fans who have long called for matches to be broadcast in the higher quality, with Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes yesterday noting the new $2.5bn AFL deal would have HD as a key part.
How will this work re the network brandings? The HD channels are a different frequency number than the main SD channels. For example Seven (main channel) is 7 on the remote control in line with its on-air branding, but if it switches to HD it will have to take over 7mate’s channel (73 on the remote control). If the networks are to remain with their current on-air brandings a lot of technical shuffling will have to take place.
What sort of ridiculous legislation has restricted FTA to SD while the STV can broadcast in HD ?
You seriously have to wonder what world politicians live in.
This will be a big blow to Foxtel…
Sydney2010, some background.
Foxtel is privately owned cable or satellite to the home. As such it doesn’t have the same broadcast regulations to comply with.
The FTAs however ‘rent’ the bandwidth – which belongs to the people of Australia – hence the licence fee. That is, WE get something back in return for OUR bandwidth, which apparently is worth less every year according to the FTAs.
When the additional bandwidth was allocated HD televisions were scarce (yes there was such a time). Hence in order to NOT disrupt virtually every household in Australia it was decided to have a ‘no change’ situation on the traditional FTA channels and allow them to HD on the additional channels.
Moving forward a decade or more, we have shut off analogue and gone 100% digital, which meant virtually every home now was suddenly HD capable. The legislation has been slow to remove the old restriction – but it could be part of the costs of the changes to transmission.
So while it may look ridiculous in the current environment, it was a sage plan when the legislation was introduced. The model you seem to be favouring (FTA in HD from the day dot) would have been expensive chaos.
JG, some additional background:
The only reason we can do this in 2015 is nothing to do with going 100% digital; it is that most of the SD decoders in the market have been replaced by natural attrition.
“Expensive chaos” was the reason being given by News Corp and Alex Encel in 1998-1999 when the current regime was created, because Encel claimed that HDTV would cost $20,000 to receive. This was a highly disingenuous statement because an HD receiver would cost $700 in 2001 and under $200 by the time it was mandatory to buy one when analog switched off. Meanwhile, Alex Encel only sold SDTV sets because he had distributorship for European TV brands. (See the real reason).
So, as is often the case in politics, a lot of fear-mongering was at the root of the problem that gave us primary channels in SD as much as 15 years later. As well as Alex Encel renting light aircraft with banners flying “STOP THE HDTV LIES”, News Corp was also dropping leaflets in Melbourne suburbs with an agenda to let them share the spectrum and start new channels in SD. They couldn’t achieve this if the FTA networks had enough spectrum for HD, but it was very hard to discover this truth. The ABC was complicit because it had an agenda of running multichannels like the BBC, and could only achieve this with SD technology.
Turnbull’s claims in parliament that the old legislation ensured people could view their channels misses the point that it was the old legislation that enabled retailers to sell cheaper SD decoders in the first place. By the time analog was switched off you couldn’t find any for sale, but the damage was done; Seven, Nine and Ten were unwilling to broadcast in HD if it meant losing 5% or 10% of their audience reach.
CK.
Well no.
At first, the analogue channels were simulcast on HD. This was done so that the FTA netwroks could take over all the spectrum and there wouldn’t be any room for a new network.
Then, Ten started to multi-channel and the others were forced to follow suit. The HD channels they reserved for movies and sport, but they have evolved over the years.
The fact you have a pic of the 2005 or 2006 AFL Grand Final at the top speaks volumes for how far behind TV is in this country, considering how many free kicks they get from Fed Govt.
The Magus some background…. As these posts all seem to start with. Digital TV is not like the old VHF days of old. Digital uses LCNs or Logical Channel Numbers and allocate what they need. All the networks need to do is change their main channel to HD and their existing HD channel to SD behind the scenes and you will not notice any difference with the channel number. Hence 7 will still be 7… 9 will still be 9… 7mate will still be on 73 etc.