Last week we discussed the urgent need to find ways of offering more HD channels on Freeview.
If this doesn’t happen, sooner or later terrestrial television will become a legacy service – the equivalent of analogue TV 15 years ago or 405-line transmissions in 1980.
In the past week, the situation has taken an interesting turn. The BBC’s move to an all-HD satellite service has been accelerated.
In less than a month, all English regions, BBC Alba, BBC Parliament and the red button service will be in HD on Sky and Freesat.
It would not be completely surprising if the SD “Nightlight” service ends up being switched off a little earlier than currently anticipated.
It will also be interesting to see whether SD Nightlight remains on HD electronic programme guides for long.
What matters is ensuring that those with SD equipment get sufficient notice and that help is available for the vulnerable.
So will the BBC’s move be copied by other broadcasters? I suspect the days of SD variants of HD channels will soon be over.
ITV no longer has SD versions of most of its regions on satellite – the SD service which remains is principally a nightlight except in the Border Scotland and Channel regions.
On Freesat, ITV 2, 3 and 4 recently moved to HD and the SD versions are no longer on the EPG.
Closing the remaining SD streams would potentially allow these two regions and, perhaps, ITVBe and CITV to move to HD.
The +1 services, which are declining in importance through catch-up, might still be SD only but could probably be squeezed onto an HD-enabled multiplex.
Similar questions apply to Channel 4 which, strangely, still has not moved its full regionalised service on to 104 on Freesat, several months after it became available on Sky.
But surely Channel 4 will not wait much longer and won’t want to run a number of SD streams of its main service indefinitely? Will Channel 4 also, eventually, make the HD versions of its other channels free-to-view?
Ultimately a lot depends on Sky contracts.
When the HD service was considered a premium, there were many examples of channels which provided an unencrypted SD service and an HD service behind a paywall – even if this paywall was sometimes just the basic HD subscription.
But is it still worth some channels paying for both HD and SD streams? I suspect some will have to decide between making their HD service free-to-air and withdrawing from Freesat.
Either way it seems certain Freesat will continue to offer much more HD which is free at the point of use.
Streaming services also offer HD and UHD. Meanwhile Freeview is only set for modest boosts.
BBC One’s English regions will soon be in HD on Freeview but not, it seems, the full suite of ITV regions. None of the other extra BBC HD services will be available.
However an extra SD channel is set to appear on the Freeview light service where more efficient encoding has created some space.
It still is not clear what channel will go there but the obvious suggestions include 4Seven, E4 Extra and ITVBe. (It is still not known publicly whether the slot outside Wales belongs to ITV or Channel 4.)
Still, the more efficient encoding could mean a slightly poorer SD picture – not a problem on a small set but potentially an issue for the discerning viewer on a 42-inch set.
It is good news for Freeview light viewers. But it’s hardly enough by itself to futureproof terrestrial TV.
Urgent action is needed. Time to convert more multiplexes to the newer HD-enabled standard.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: Sky/Freeview/Freesat logos. COPYRIGHT: Sky plc/Freeview/Freesat.
Tom
SD shouldn’t be allowed in 2023