Channel 5 HD on Freeview cancelled ... again
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Email from Ofcom today says today:
Ofcom has been notified by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited that it does not wish to proceed with its application for the fifth HD capacity slot on Digital Terrestrial TV at the present time.
Subject to any future Ofcom decision to re-advertise the slot, the capacity will remain with the Multiplex operator BBC Free-to-View Limited and can be used by it for BBC services or services provided by a third party via a commercial arrangement.
See also Channel 5 again ditches plans to launch HD channel on Freeview - Media - guardian.co.uk .
Help with High Definition?
| Whenever i watch moving sport especially football I experience much poorer pictu | 1 |
In this section
Monday, 19 December 2011
Mike Dimmick: I suspect that the problem for Channel 5 is our old friend, the cost of providing services to the last 8% of viewers.
Channel 5 has never had to provide a "universal service" and was broadcast from a number of high-service area masts on analogue.
As the "C5 HD" would have been a slot on the BBCB multiplex, the costs of broadcasting to all viewers would have been too high.
It is easy to forget that watching TV in high definition is a minority activity at the moment, and whilst Freeview HD is doing well, the number of homes that would watch C5 HD in the small number of homes covered by the smaller 1000+ transmitters must be very small at this time.
Even the BBC can't be bothered with a regional news service on BBC One HD on Freeview, and ITV1 has only regions for adverts.
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Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Brian Wright
11:15 PM
11:15 PM
Quite frankly the HD on freeview is a marginal improvement to most people except probably the much improved motion quality .
Its obvious to most shops that they will never sell purely on HD unless they display a DVD blue ray film.
My own subjective viewing of the HD brodcasts is that the transmitted programs are not as good as when the services were first introduced. As usual they have gone for quantity at the expence of the technical quality. Its good but not excellent
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Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Nick: No, you don't pay for Freeview. You pay for the BBC services which are on various platforms including Freeview, satellite, cable and online.
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Brian Wright, you are correct, the presant HD service is now about as good as the analogue service was 30 years ago!
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 22 December 2011
S
SeaBee8:08 PM
Mr Desmond did not get where he is today by overpaying for anything. Give it a few months and Channel Five will be on HD and Mr Desmond will be somewhat richer.
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Friday, 23 December 2011
I
ian from notts6:36 AM
Belper
high definition ? not sure how many homes i've been to where they tell me how good it is only to see the scart lead kick in when they turn their sky box on ? quality !
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ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jim scott10:58 PM
Hi does anyone know why north west tonight is being broadcast in the north east and cumbria. i live in blackpool and on the listings at a friends house in newcastle it says NOrth west tonight. thanks just wondered if anyone new. jim
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Friday, 30 December 2011
D
Des Collier8:59 PM
Jim Scott- same for us in yorkshire region,we get itv1 granada on hd
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Saturday, 31 December 2011
J
jfc12:51 PM
Highbridge
-Personally I think this is a shame, it would have been good to get the 'first five' all in HD matching SD - As these are the core public service channels. I've always thought that CH5 got a bad press - there have been some real 'diamonds in the rough' in the past. Having said this the schedule seems to be going down market fast at the moment. (will Ofcom actually do anything to keep them to basic public service standards?).
Also on a slightly different topic Freeview HD bit-rates are low enough a lot of the time now to get six channels on this mux .
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jfc's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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