Nine cites ‘technical difficulties’ as it confirms it will not screen NRL grand final in HD
The Nine Network will not broadcast Sunday night’s NRL grand final in high definition (HD) citing “technical difficulties”.
Last week the TV network claimed it had yet to decide whether or not it will broadcast the showpiece final, and one of its highest rating shows of the year, between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Canterbury Bulldogs in HD.
However, a Nine spokeswoman today confirmed the decision citing “technical difficulties”, although would not elaborate as to what these were.
In 2012 Nine was able to broadcast its Olympics coverage in HD, where high definition pictures were provided from the Olympic host broadcaster.
Harvey Norman, like most TV retailers, have promotions around sporting events. Almost always the selling point is a bigger picture and better detail. Nothing could be further from the truth!
And If you’re unfortunate enough to have Foxtel by Satellite (many apartment buildings) , the retransmission of an SD signal is like watching a YouTube video in 240p.
The sooner AFL returns to Foxtel in the form of Fox Footy HD, the better
This is rubbish. All of their games are produced in HD and downconverted for on air. And we all know the replays are in full HD on FOX.
I heard they are going to put every 2nd frame of the 25 frames a second on the GO! channel.
Technical difficulties? Nine have been broadcasting the NRL interstate on GEM in HD ALL FRICKIN’ YEAR…
Nine, you’re going to need a better lie than that.
In 1969 we could get live pictures from the moon.
In 2014 Nine is having “technical difficulties” doing a football game in HD when they’ve actually been producing HD coverage of games all year.
Is the technical difficulty that they can’t find the switch to flick it back to HD – the way it is recorded live.
Perhaps this is a good way of knocking down the price of your next TV purchase?
It’s a complete joke. HD broadcasting began in Australia in 2001. It’s been well over a decade, and what do we have to show for it?
Nothing but contempt from the FTA networks, who would rather gain an additional 50-100k viewers watching ancient content on their third-tier channel than simulcast important events on their HD channel.
Just look at the content they screen — 4:3 content, non-HD content, ancient films from the 1940s that even Bill Collins hasn’t heard of, and the schlockiest, lowest-tier reality shows they can find.
Meanwhile the primary channels look even worse than they did when SD Digital started due to the lowered bitrate — a result of cramming in 2 SDs, 1 HD, and a bunch of infomercial crap. You can’t even get 5.1 on the SD channels anymore.
And yet because our HD standard is so old, we’re stuck with old, inefficient broadcasts codecs like MPEG-2 because they have over a decade of HD tuners (or worse, SD-only tuners) to support that don’t support modern implementations like MPEG-4.
Malcolm Turnbull has said it’s the result of ‘outdated’ laws and they’ll remove the requirement that the ‘primary channel’ (as defined by anti-siphoning laws) must be an SD channel, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the networks will continue to do so of their own volition, purely because they’d rather get the minuscule ratings bump from those with SD only tuners.
And Nine will continue to cite ‘technical difficulties’ despite the fact everything is produced internally (and provided to other broadcasters) in HD.
Another reason all sport should be on FoxSports. It’s 2014 and this is garbage.
An excuse of course, but why would Nine take up two channels when they won’t get any more viewers than they would with one. Family Feud is different because its TV that people just watch because it’s on.
Viewers are reluctant to switch channels, and event TV is used to boost rating of programs which are before and after.
honestly, what a crock of shit.
“technical difficulties” with no further explanation.
for too long media bosses have been allowed to disrespect their audiences like this and trust that we’ll remain passive. they are trying to stay alive in 2014 using a business model straight out of 1975. change is coming.
The only technical difficulty here is Nine is being stingy by not wanting to pay an extra few technicians to administer the feed and save some petrol money by not rolling out an extra OB facility.
Technical difficulties has to be a lie. Not only did they simulcst the Olympics in HD but they also did the RUWC and a Trans Tasman Test http://www.tvtonight.com.au/20.....n-gem.html
Remember when we had the State of Origin and Grand Final in both HD and 3D? “Technical difficulties” is the standard TV industry palm-off. I remember in 1992 when a phone call from Kerry Packer yanked Doug Mulray’s naughty video show off the air halfway through, the announcer said they were experiencing “technical difficulties”
Gee, isn’t ANYONE going into bat for Channel 9? I believe their technical difficulties line – they can’t work out how to fit any more ads in on HD, so why bother?
Bring on programmatic buying and the eventual death of the industry these bell ends run
What do you expect? TV channels have been screening films in 1.78 aspect ratios for films that were shot in 2.35 aspect ratio. You lose a lot of screen space. This is why I never watch movies on TV now and only on DVD or in cinemas. SBS is the only station that screens 235 aspect ratio films in their original format.