[mythtv-users] OT: Do we have HD in the UK?

[Richard Morton]

Unfortunately, as I understand it, it is more complicated than that; I
have pieced this together from many sources as the commercial
contracts seem to be a little secretive.

The channels (Dave for instance) that are on Sky that are also
available on free-to-air Freeview, if they are contained within a
chargeable package on Sky they get a payment for the subscribers of
the package or a lump sum.

Those channels which are unencrypted on Sky (BBCOne etc) have to pay
to be listed in the Sky EPG. Some of those channels have an
exclusivity even if they are free-to-air on Sky.

However; the same channel transmission within a MUX can supply both
Sky and FreeSat set top boxes; although the EPG data would be
completely different transmissions. This is because the satellites
used for FreeSat and Sky are in the same celestial position.

So as a hypothetical example if Dave was part of a chargeable on Sky
package: for Dave to go from Sky to FreeSat (&Sky free-to-air) would
likely entail losing their subscriber payment from Sky, being charged
for Sky AND FreeSat EPG inclusion; and also the bandwidth used for the
transmission of signal through a mux on a satellite.

Because the number of viewers on FreeSat is so low currently this is
not a good commercial move. I suspect the big 5 channels all had
agreed before launch of FreeSat to be broadcast over FreeSat.

I truely hope that FreeSat gets more HD channels but to get there they
are likely going to need many more subscribers to create the business
case. It can hardly be called FreeSatHD when there is only two
part-time HD channels)

With regard to FreeView (terrestrial) HD channels; OfCom is looking to
sell so much bandwidth to non-tv uses after the digital switchover,
even with a switch to a more efficient H.264 codec from MPEG2
(requiring at best a firmware upgrade of set-top boxes but more likely
a replacement set-top box for everyone). there would only be enough
bandwidth for 4 or 5 additional HD channels in addition to the current
SD lineup (even if the current SD lineup was transmitted in H.264 at
standard definition).

R