Great things to read about British TV from March 2008 to today

Tuesday 08 December 2009, PM

Media Talk USA: Google, Murdoch and Oprah |Media |guardian.co.uk

Jeff Jarvis is joined by two leading media figures for the December edition of the podcast. And, Oprah Winfrey confirms that she is heading to cable while Howard Stern may be heading to the net. - guardian.co.uk

Government urges BBC to consider Worldwide sell-off |Media |guardian.co.uk

BBC Worldwide the corporation has discovered it is on the list of assets the government is considering selling. According to sources, the BBC discovered just a couple of weeks ago that its commercial arm which had annual revenues of about 1bn last year was on the list. This puts more political pressure on the BBC following a promise by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, yesterday to name and shame publicly-funded organisations that pay excessive salaries. - guardian.co.uk

Michael Grade attacks BBC tactics in licence fee debate |Media |guardian.co.uk

Michael Grade 'the trust got the choreography wrong'. The trust is there to represent the interests of the licence fee payers. I quite understand the director general and the executive of the BBC coming out and firing in every direction against top-slicing. - guardian.co.uk

Tuesday 08 December 2009, AM

EBU General Assembly Endorses Hybrid Broadcast Broadband, Calls for Common Approach | InteractiveTV Today

It allows applications to determine whether or not an IP connection is possible i.e. whether or not the receiver incorporates the necessary hardware and software and whether or not such a connection is actually available i.e. whether or not the user has connected the receiver to their home network. - itvt.com

www.itvt.com

The Hitchhikers Guide to Encoding: So Many Tests, and Thanks for All the Recommendations (Or th

Tuesday Many posts have mentioned EBU documents and recommendations. The BBC is a founder and very active member of the EBU. I am extremely proud to work with the experts in BBC RD and for the opportunity to contribute to the work they do. - bbc.co.uk

Monday 07 December 2009, PM

Government Consults on Proposed Modifications to draft text of Final Undertakings to Reduce Sky Stake in

The page you're looking for might have been moved. Its name might have changed, or it might be temporarily unavailable. Try searching Enter your subject's keywords into the search box at the top of the page. - tradingmarkets.com

www.tradingmarkets.com

New pressure for Ofcom to adjust top salaries : | OfcomWatch |

www.ofcomwatch.co.uk

Digital radio stations off go air after technical glitch |Media |guardian.co.uk

Digital radio listeners lost commercial radio stations including Classic FM when they went off air across the country yesterday because of technical problems. Listeners reported problems on the digital audio broadcasting DAB platform just before 10am. All of the broadcasters were back on air by midday, according to listeners. - guardian.co.uk

Monday 07 December 2009, AM

BT pension deficit: what should Ofcom do? : | OfcomWatch |

www.ofcomwatch.co.uk

Viewers must wait for HD Freeview boxes | This is Money

It aims to roll out the service to almost half of all households by the time of the football World Cup in June. Freeview, at present used by more than 18m households, aims to reach 98.5 of the population by the end of the digital switchover in 2012. However, the new set-top boxes necessary to receive the service will not be on sale until February 2010 at the earliest and customers with HD-ready televisions will have to buy a new set-top box, likely to be priced at about 70, to receive the channels. - thisismoney.co.uk

www.thisismoney.co.uk

BBC satellite HD quality causes controversy

This led to complaints from satellite viewers about the picture quality, so the broadcaster is now evaluating technical demonstrations of the service. The codec installed in August is actually an improvement on the earlier codec, and although the bitrate is lower, it has been shown in tests that it gives at the same, and maybe an even better level of quality. A technical problem that did cause issues with picture quality immediately after the new codec was installed has been resolved. - hdtv-news.co.uk

www.hdtv-news.co.uk

Friday 04 December 2009, PM

Humax launches UKs first Freeview HD set-top box - Which? News

Toshiba is reportedly working on a Freeview HD set-top box with built-in recordable Blu-ray drive. A definitive launch date is yet to be confirmed, but the Toshiba box is likely to launch in 2010. - which.co.uk

www.which.co.uk

Friday 04 December 2009, AM

The Hitchhikers Guide to Encoding: Before we start

Before I start, it's worth saying encoder testing takes a long time because it's not just about picture quality. Before any testing starts a new encoder is checked for full compliance with the MPEG4 standards. Then it's tested for a considerable time to make sure it's compatible with existing set top boxes from different manufacturers and with the Sky platform. - bbc.co.uk

Recent HD trial with P2P-Next project

Hi all.This is my first post on the new BBC Research and Development blog. My team, Prototyping, builds new prototypes and trials new products and services across all digital platforms. We made this available in standard definition and HD, to test the most recent trial from the P2P-Next project. - bbc.co.uk

Media Talk: Google News offers an olive branch to Rupert Murdoch

download.guardian.co.uk

Round up: Freeview HD

Yesterday's technical launch of Freeview HD was the big news in Internet Blog Towers and there's some good coverage out there. Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog. - bbc.co.uk

Distribution Core Technologies Section and DVB-T2

Over this and subsequent posts I'll aim to tell you more about the work of the various teams in the section in areas such as high definition radio cameras, video coding, white spaces and the future of radio. As part of the T2 team, I was lucky enough to be at the awards ceremony and thought I'd give some background into the work that was recognised by the award. It achieves this through a combination of more advanced modulation techniques, improved error correction coding and time interleaving as well as more efficient signalling and allocation of pilots. - bbc.co.uk

Don't be fooled by fake Freeview HD deals

www.stornowaygazette.co.uk

Thursday 03 December 2009, PM

One For All Freeview HD SV9380 TV Aerial | Electricpig

The snappily titled SV9380 has been built with digital switch over in mind and packs the latest tech to give you the best viewing options. One For Alls dual patch technology eliminates unwanted reflections by implementing differential mode in the two antenna plates. Put simply, this means a better signal and fewer errors which is especially important for HD transmissions. - electricpig.co.uk

www.electricpig.co.uk

Freeview HD is in the air, you just can t see it yet | BitterWallet

Suddenly all your favourite non-Sky One programmes are so crisp and detailed you can smell them Except you cant watch them, because nobody will sell you a household receiver yet. Unfortunately, there wont be a set-top box that can receive this new type of signal until early next year engineers are describing today as a technical launch rather than a consumer launch, which wont happen for another four months or so. - bitterwallet.com

www.bitterwallet.com

Call for BBC Alba on Freeview campaign - Stornoway Today

- stornowaygazette.co.uk

Digital signals for TV go live

- shropshirestar.com

www.shropshirestar.com

How real does TV have to be? |Television radio |guardian.co.uk

The Top Gear team had 'a bit of fun' with Norwich airport. The latest involves the Top Gear team, who, the Sun reports today, allegedly staged a stunt in which James May appeared to crash an airship, causing an emergency alert at Norwich airport. These are just the latest in a series of outcries about trust on TV. - guardian.co.uk

Homepage - projectcanvas.info

- projectcanvas.info

www.projectcanvas.info

Thursday 03 December 2009, AM

Digital TV - News - BBC mulls BBC HD picture quality demos - Digital Spy

Viewers subsequently reported various issues with picture quality on the channel, and called for the broadcaster to return it to pre-August standards. He explained that a major issue is that these people cannot see the results being produced in the BBC labs or the technical tests which have been conducted. After publicly acknowledging the problem, the BBC has worked hard to address it. - digitalspy.co.uk

BBC HD quality better than ever | Broadband TV News

I think unfortunately what has happens is a little like in digital radio, people tend to equate the bitrate with the quality and find it very difficult to believe you can get an improved generation of coder you can actually use a smaller bitrate and still achieve the same level of quality. Plumb acknowledged there had been some initial difficulties with the first generation of encoder, which had been quickly owned up to. There was a very small issue on certain shot changes and that has been cleared and wont be an issue with Freeview HD whatsoever, he said. - broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

Freeview HD goes live Register Hardware

With the launch today of the Freeview HD service, the UK can claim to be at the forefront of digital television - though most punters won't be able to receive the service until spring 2010. Todays launch saw services switched on at the Crystal Palace and Winter Hill transmitters, between them providing coverage for around 22-23 per cent of the UKs population. As of today, while we may have the first operational TV service in the world using the new DVB-T2 standard, there arent any receivers available to buy. - reghardware.co.uk

www.reghardware.co.uk

Wednesday 02 December 2009, PM

Peter Mandelson declares war on Rupert Murdochs media empire |Media |The Guardian

Mandelson believes that, unlike New Labour in 1997, the Tories have provided clear evidence of how they are pursuing a near identical agenda to News Corp. - guardian.co.uk

Easter push for Freeview HD | Broadband TV News

The new HD EPG now features Freeview branding for the first time, though manufacturers are free to create their own look and feel. Until April 2008 this will be a simulcast of ITV1 London, after which some regionalisation will take place. - broadbandtvnews.com

www.broadbandtvnews.com

Digital TV - News - Freeview HD begins UK transmissions - Digital Spy

Freeview has commenced technical transmission of high definition broadcasts towards a full commercial launch in spring 2010. Both HD channels were incorporated into the Freeview EPG with all existing standard definition offerings. Freeview will also now introduce its branding onto the EPG to remind viewers what they are watching, even when using third-party services, such as IP Vision. - digitalspy.co.uk

Media: 2 Dec 09 - Victoria Derbyshire in Zimbabwe; Jeremy Hunt on BBC Pay; Tiger Woods's reputation.

downloads.bbc.co.uk

Web giants unite against Digital Britain copyright plan

Others have suggested that the clause could be used to tweak laws so that search engines could not publish summaries of news stories in their results. Bis said that clause 17 was a necessary extension of its plans to reduce copyright theft and that fears that government would mould copyright laws to their needs were unfounded. Clause 17 is part of the government's Digital Economy Bill, outlined in the Queen's speech in November 2009. - news.bbc.co.uk

news.bbc.co.uk

See the history of satellite TV

Wheres kids TV in our digital future? |Media |guardian.co.uk

A modest annual sum of around 30m had been proposed, to meet the gap created by ITV's effective withdrawal from children's TV, and a drop of some 50m a year in funding since 2004. It is even crueller because there was a moment of brief but well-founded hope back in July, when the idea of a children's fund was put forward in the consultation for a contained contestable fund created from the BBC licence fee. This was launched by the culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, over the summer. - guardian.co.uk

Freeview HD has arrived

Wirral is now a totally digital telly area From Wirral Globe)

The move extends digital terrestrial television Freeview coverage to all households served by the Winter Hill transmitter group, which includes Wirral. All terrestrial TV signals were turned off shortly after midnight and a team of engineers worked through the night on the switch to all-digital TV services. Analogue services will remain switched off permanently, allowing Freeview channels to be broadcast from dozens of local relay transmitters for the first time. - wirralglobe.co.uk

www.wirralglobe.co.uk

Pic of the Day: Freeview HD Technical Launch

There was a demo for a Freeview HD postcode checker that should also be going live soon. Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog. - bbc.co.uk

Wednesday 02 December 2009, AM

Freesat managing director Emma Scott - Digital Spy

Freesat recently confirmed plans to launch a beta of BBC iPlayer on December 7, followed by a full rollout in Q1 2010. The on-demand service will be joined by ITV Player later in the year. The firm further revealed that its sales have now passed 750,000 units, and could soon breach the one million mark. - digitalspy.co.uk

Tuesday 01 December 2009, PM

Tech Weekly podcast: Freeview HD and Josh Harris on We Live In Public |Technology |guardian.co.uk

There's also a look at what the launch of Freeview HD - the first service to offer free high definition channels over the air, without a dish or cable installation - means for the UK. On top of all that, we'll be asking you to send us your 2009 highlights and 2010 predictions - leave us your tech highlights of 2009 and what things you think will be big next year in the comments below. - guardian.co.uk

www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Toshiba Freeview HD Blu-ray Set-Top Box

We are a family run business that has been selling appliances and electrical items for more than 40 years. - unbeatable.co.uk

www.unbeatable.co.uk

Anger at digital TV tax

www.bdpost.co.uk

One day to final digital switchover in Lancashire From Lancashire Telegraph)

The digital switchover has been hailed a success so far in Lancashire after the first phase - which saw the BBC2 signal switched off - last month. Digital UK, which is managing the switchover, said it has dealt with a range of queries including tuning issues, but that no major problems were reported. Now viewers must ensure all their TVs can receive a digital signal. - lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Freesat backs BBC HD picture quality - Digital Spy

Viewers subsequently reported various issues with picture quality on the channel and called for the BBC to return it to pre-August standards. On satellite, it's a pretty high picture quality. - digitalspy.co.uk