All posts by Trevor Harris
Below are all of Trevor Harris's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I understand that the 98.2% means that in any week 98.2% of people who watched TV that week watched BBC1. Some of those may have only watched one BBC1 programe and so unlikely to to pay £145.50 for one program a week.
Actually Road Tax is unfair as most of the money collected is not used to pay for the roads. Council Tax is also unfair as many council services relate to individuals and not the house they live in.
The fact that Sky is the satellite gatekeeper is the result of Government policy when satellite broadcasting started. As you know the Government wanted to start things of with 2 satellite companies but that proved not to be feasable. Sky does have a very powerful place in the market and Ofcom and the Competition Commission are meant to keep Sky in its place.
Odly enough competition does not always work in the consumers interest. When Sky was forbiden to take all the Premiereship packages the cost to the consumer went up as they had to pay Sky and Setanta to see all the matches. Now BT has entered the TV market in an attempt to preserve thier overpriced Internet service.
If you think Sky bundle thier services too much what about the BBC. They only have one bundle!!!
Now TV is just another delivery method. There is plenty of competition in the Internet video market. Netflix, Amazon, youtube and Blinkbox etc.
I am not sure about the PVR facilities it might be that the software is rented to users.
In any case Sky does not make excessive profits. The churn rate is very price sensitive and so Sky manages it's prices very carefully.
In any case all this has very little to do about the unjust BBC licence fee. Maybe part of the licence fee should go to Sky as we all need the licence to watch it.
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I understood the BBC did this to enforce the BBC copying policy. Iplayer streams are available unencrypted so can be copied at will with the right software. The BBC has trying to bully software writers from making this software available. Hint google get_iplayer.
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Sound quality is only one of the reasons DAB has failed. To allow even lower quality sound will only turn the public off. DAB+ does have proper error correction which should end the famous DAB burbling. The fact remains that the general public have rejected DAB as this is a last attempt by Ofcom to resurrect this legacy technology. Many people who buy DAB radios are very dissapointed. There is no way that many of these will want to spend money to upgrade to DAB+ especially as there are better technologies available.
I notice that UKFree was very quiet about the abandoment of the FM switch off.
At the moment only PSB's financed by an enforced licence fee can afford this expensive system.
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Ofcom is proposing to use the second national multiplex and is to limit DAB+ to 30% of multiplex capacity.
The previous attemt to get the multiplex up and running failed because there was not sufficient interest. It is unlikely that they will be able to attract sufficient stations for the 70% still using DAB. As for DAB+ lower running costs may attractive but is offset by the smaller number of people with DAB+ radios. In short it is very unlikely this multiplex will be taken up by anyone and so DAB+ is unlikely to materialise.
DAB is dead and it is about time the BBC and Ofcom abandoned this expensive folly.
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As pointed out in the Ofcom document DVB-T uses MP2 codec the same as DAB but the TV stations tend to use higher bit rates. DVB-T2 uses AAC either in stereo of 5.1 surround. On satellite HD channels use Dolby Digital in stereo or 5.1. The Dolby sound on the HD channels is much better than the SD sound.
I think "seemoredigital" is right about how difficult DVB-T is to use for radio. I have a Roberts radio which I can control very easily from my mobile phone over wifi. Using a mobile phone as a remote control would be a much easier way to contol a television.
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Actually Peter there are some stations on the internet which use the lossless FLAC compressor. I think that the internet is going to become the medium of choice for both TV and Radio. Sky, Talk Talk and City Fibre are building a fibre network completely independent of OpenReach. They are going to supply FTTP at 1Gb/s. BT has been draging its feet over FTTP and the independent ISPs have had enough.
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FM/MW/LW are restricted by international law. White space services fit in the frequencies between FM stations so there is no need for any switch off. Digital Radio Mondile DRM+ is an example of such a service.
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I would not worry about it. First Ofcom have got to sell the second multiplex and there may be no takers. Then the owners will have to find a radio station willing to join the multiplex and use DAB+. DAB+ would be cheaper but with a smaller audience. So it is very unlikely to ever happen.
Some DAB radios have DAB+ hardware but would require a software upgrade. This is likely to be chargable because additional licence fees would have to be paid.
DAB is dead and Ofcom should be looking to the more advanced system if there is demand for radio system. My view is the the Internet will eventually become the technology of choice for both radio and television.
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Sunday 6 April 2014 11:17PM
The BBC may be getting a 98.2% reach but it is quite clear that the BBC would not get anything like that if they had a choice of not paying the licence fee. That is what the BBC is so keen to keep the licence fee enforced under threat of prision and a criminal record.
If Sky were overcharging for thier service people would not pay for it. Infact Sky subscriptions have help up very well during the recession. We just do not know if the BBC is overcharging while we have a compulsary licence fee.