Soup of the Day

Free to air HDTV under threat

United Kingdom HDTV sales in the months leading up to Christmas failed to slow making 2006 a very good year for High Definition Television manufactures. Strangely things were stacked against HDTV from the start of 2006. The Playstation 3 was delayed resulting in the release date being put back to March 2007 in the UK. Sky HD had terrible trouble meeting demand before the World Cup in the summer, with many customers not receiving their new boxes until after the competition had finished.

One of the only high-lights for HDTV in the UK was the terestrial trial of HDTV broadcasting that ran for several months in London for a select few members of the public. The results from the trial indicated that HDTV was well received by all, although there were some teething problems particularly with speech not in synch with the picture. This has been identified as an area that needs more attention as the higher picture details makes it easier to see when dialogue wasn’t synchronised properly.

But while all this other activity was going on, HDTV sales were strong throughout the year with over 50% of new television sales an HDTV. Given that only 20% of the public were using Sky or Virgin Media (formerly NTL:Telewest), why are so many buying HDTV sets? Personally I don’t know everyones reasoning for paying at least £400 more for an HDTV, but I can give you my perspective as one of those people who purchased an HDTV without any supporting HD services.

Although there isn’t much in the way of HD content available for our screens without paying a premium, there is lots of promise on the horizon. Firstly the Xbox 360 is HD capable and you can get an additional HD-DVD player to playback HD films, plus the games are almost all HD where available. Given the Xbox 360 has been available since Christmas 2005, this could be a large factor. The Playstation 3 is also due and delivers affordable Blu-Ray capability to the masses. The Playstation 3 is also a formidable gaming machine, but I think Blu-Ray might be its killer application, at least in our household.

Elsewhere Apple have launched their Apple TV box, that will allow content to be piped from the internet to your TV. Given that the Apple TV has an HDMI connection, it seems logical that Apple will start piping HDTV when bandwidth allows. Humax, TopField and Pace have also released satellite receiver boxes that can decode free HD signals from Astra-2, the satellite that broadcasts the free BBC HD service.

So there is a lot of content out there, but there is not one unified source of HD available without subscription. Many people, including myself, assumed that when the analog television signals where switched off from 2008, the frequency space they occupy could be filled with glorious high definition programming.

But Ofcom, the government regulator, has other ideas that may make HDTV owners feel left in the (preverbal) dark. Ofcom want to sell the newly available frequences to the highest bidder rather than dedicate them to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and the rest. There is no reason why the BBC and other channels couldn’t bid and win these frequencies, but we all know that Sky, Virgin and the various mobile operators will also be very interested and have far bigger pockets. If Ofcom put the analog frequencies to auction, we can kiss goodbye the idea of free-to-air HD transmissions.

Thankfully there are a number of organisations trying to get the governments attention on this issue. HDforAll is a campaign to lobby the government to release some spectrum for free-to-air HDTV broadcasts now, before the big switch to digital. The HDforAll campaign is supported by Sony, Toshiba, Comet, Samsung, BBC, ITV, Five, Channel 4 and Dixons, which means it has a lot of weight behind it and is a good place for all HDTV owners to register their support.

Elsewhere there are several petitions placed on the 10 Downing Street E-Petitions web site. The most important one to sign if you agree with the cause, is the Open HDTV campaign at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/openhdtv/. You must be a UK citizen to sign this petition.

If you are an HDTV owner, or are planning to get an HDTV screen then these petitions are very important to you and you should seriously consider signing up. With Ofcom committed to selling the analog frequencies to the highest bidder in 2012, free-to-air HDTV services are under threat.

“Don’t assume someone else is doing it”
- Steve Dowdle, the Managing Director at Sony UK Ltd.

Of course a lot can change in five years and we may all be piping our HDTV from YouTube over the internet in 2012, but better safe than sorry.