BBC TWO HD, some thoughts

There were suggestions earlier in the week that BBC HD was about to become BBC TWO HD, but this was premature. What would it take?

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 17th July 2011 at 18:23}

Broadcast recently reported BBC HD/3D boss quits; BBC2 HD planned:

"Meanwhile, the BBC HD channel will move towards becoming a simulcast of BBC2, although a spokeswoman stressed that a full BBC2 HD channel remained a long term aspiration. No proposals have been put to the BBC Trust yet, but they could feature as part of Delivering Quality First."

It is worth noting that this idea, however unplanned, would certainly be a good "win" for the BBC, as it would be playing the Sky EPG game to their advantage.

Currently, BBC HD is Sky channel 169 and BBC One HD is 143, both quite a few pages down the Sky HD electronic programme guide.

However, as a "full replacement" channel, BBC TWO HD would appear at 102 - right at the top of the high definition channel list!

As there are only four regional versions of BBC TWO, one each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, satellite capacity would only have to be found for an additional three high definition video streams if the HD channel was taken from the EPG.

The problem at the moment is that only three HD streams fit into an Astra 2D transponder, or four on the "wider" Astra 2A/2B satellites.

BBC three, FOUR, CBBC, Cbeebies

And just another two streams would be required to provide the other four channels, as UK-wide services BBC three timeshares with CBBC, and BBC FOUR shares with Cbeebies. And, again, as "full replacement services", they would go in the Sky EPG at 115, 116, 613 and 614.

BBC one

With 15 regions on BBC one, fifteen streams would need to be carried to get BBC One HD at position 101. That would require four or five full transponders to carry the services, capacity that is not currently available.

For this reason, the BBC currently plan to only provide for the 16.2% of the UK population in the nations (Scotland 8.4%, Wales 4.9%, NI 2.9%) on BBC One HD, so the channel will remain at 143, but with local news and schedules for the "nations".