Comments on: C4HD not any time soon

By: Gordon

Gordon — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:42:01 +0000

The only edge that Freesat has over freeview or FreesatFromSky, is the HD content. 1080p tv’s are cheap now, blu-ray has won the hi-def war… Consumers want HDTV!

By: Al

Al — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:09:05 +0000

I think this is maybe a case of Freesat / BBC breaking the Cardinal rule – always know your audience.

I get the feeling that Freesat was conceived mainly as an SD service as the BBC didn’t think the time had yet arrived for HD, but its very much looking from the majority of feedback on here, from the this and the feedback thread, that most people want a full HD service and the time for HD has already arrived.

It looks as if the BBC badly misjudged its audience in terms of what they really wanted definition wise. Lets just hope this can now be addressed and a full HD service put in place ASAP.

Channel 4 HD is of course a seperate issue now contracts are in place.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:33:46 +0000

to be honest i think freesat is going in the right direction people are complaining that sky has more hd channels one you pay £200 for the hd box alone and then £50 a month so in the first month youve already paid more than freesat hd with installation and then its £50 a month there after its just such a rip off plus they have adverts aswell its because of this greed that i hate sky and will never sign up with them

By: luke

luke — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:36:17 +0000

Shame, lost would have been awsome. I understand moving the channels about is more upto the satellite owners than the peaple renting space. So let’s hope they do a shuffle. But I’m sure sky pay a premium so it might not happen.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:50:10 +0000

The problem is maybe that C4 HD is currently on the wide Astra 2A beam and there’s no space left on the narrow 2D beam at the moment. C4 would probably want their HD channel to have a proper Freesat channel number, i.e. to be a standard HD service receivable by all HD receivers rather than just being a red button service like ITV HD, but they couldn’t do that unless it was on Astra 2D otherwise the rights issues come into play. This is especially the case for HD as it is “premium” material and C4 may find studios causing them difficulties if they don’t take steps to limit wider reception.

Maybe if Sky can be encouraged to move some of their encrypted channels off of 2D (they don’t need to be there, they are encrypted so don’t need a narrow beam to restrict reception) then C4 HD maybe could move and go FTA. Sky may be acting tactically by holding 2D capacity to stop this happening, and so keep C4 HD only visible on their own hardware.

By: Col

Col — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:26:25 +0000

This makes it clearer why Freesat didn’t make a song and dance about the launch, they didn’t launch anything. Almost everything that is available on Freesat is available for free from fta boxes or even Sky.

Personally I think it was a bad move to launch so early. It got my hopes up and when they were dashed I went and got the pay once thing from sky. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a relaunch event around november with everything that we all expected at the first launch. I’ll be waiting until then, actually I might have to because I’m not buying anything other than a DTR (are they the right letters this week?)

By: Lee B

Lee B — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:06:07 +0000

C4 could do an interactive function like ITV, and you just press the red button to get the HD version of the program. That way it should not cause a problem with the Sky contract.

Or ITV as part of the freesat club could refuse to launch ITVHD on Sky unless C4 was allowed to launch C4HD on freesat.

By: darnall42

darnall42 — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:43:07 +0000

what a stich up by channel 4 and sky(C4 gets a cheap deal to get on sky.sky gets one up on freesat)and sky have the nerve to have a go at ITV HD for denying Sky hd customers

By: lib

lib — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:14:14 +0000

l think this is bad news for freesat. only 1 hd channel at this time
NO itv hd yet
thats it.
sorry to say l think freesat will fail for hd channels.
sky is the best but you do have to pay for it.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:13:14 +0000

Maybe Channel 4 will find a way around this with Sky such as offering certain programs they’re not currently providing on Channles contracted to Sky in exchange for the right to air CH4 HD on Freesat.