Join Freesat

(Update – please be aware that the schedule slipped due to contractual issues between Channel 4 and Sky, so the 1st April release has been changed for later this month; as soon as we have official confirmation, we’ll let you know).

No, this isn’t an April Fools, C4HD is expected to launch on Freesat on the 1st April 2011. This date isn’t officially confirmed, but comes from a very reliable source.

If you cannot wait that long, the channel should be broadcasting ‘in the clear’ (FTA) from 10th March so you can scan non-Freesat mode to access it (as some were doing last week). …read more »

We have launched a new poll on the left hand side of the page asking which HD channel you would like to see on Freesat next.

The key thing here is that we’ve picked channels that are most likely to join Freesat in the future; from the main stream UK broadcasters.

We know Channel 4 are in discussions with Freesat into bringing C4HD to the platform soon, but is this the HD channel you’d most like to see?

Don’t forget to vote, and by all means leave comments specific to this post below.

For those of you that can’t wait for the launch of BBC One HD on the 3rd November 2010, the channel has appeared this morning for testing.

Obviously this is just a test channel for now, so won’t carry full television listings etc, but if you want to take a look, you’ll just need to add the frequency information manually (the method of doing this will vary from receiver to receiver):

Channel ID: 6941
Frequency: 10.84700 GHz
Polarisation: V (vertical)
Symbol rate: 22.0 Mbaud
FEC: 5/6

The BBC today confirmed that BBC One HD will launch at 7pm on Wednesday 3rd November 2010 across all HD platforms: Freesat channel 108, Freeview channel 50, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

The new high definition (HD) channel kicks off at 7pm with a series of programmes made in true HD: The One Show, followed by Wallace and Gromit: World of Inventions (the new series brought to you from award-winning Aardman Animations), as well as some food for thought with Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers and Jimmy’s Food Factory. The Apprentice and Film 2010 will also show in HD that evening.

It is also announced today that the BBC’s award-winning continuing drama EastEnders broadcasts in HD for the first time on Christmas Day, allowing viewers to catch all the drama in Albert Square in even more vivid detail.

EastEnders follows Holby City which made the move to HD on 18th October 2010. It will be shown on the BBC’s existing HD channel, until BBC One HD launches in November.

The new HD channel will simulcast a network version of the BBC One schedule, with the majority of peaktime programmes in HD, including The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing, Children in Need, Antiques Roadshow, Countryfile, The Graham Norton Show and The Royal Variety Show.

Jana Bennett, Director BBC Vision said;

Whether it is seeing the flicker of irritation on Lord Sugar’s face in a boardroom showdown or watching the beads of sweat fly from the dancers on Strictly, BBC ONE HD is the biggest sign yet that HD viewing is now part of the mainstream.

Danielle Nagler, Head of HD & 3D says;

It’s incredibly exciting to begin the official count down to the launch of the new channel, and we’re delighted to be launching with BBC One’s popular flagship programe, The One Show.

The arrival of the UK’s favourite channel in HD – as a second HD channel from the BBC – will increase the range and choice of HD programming we can offer the ever growing HD audience.

“The existing BBC HD channel has been hugely successful. It will continue to show programmes from across all BBC channels, to allow all HD viewers to find programming they can enjoy. And it will now have space to accommodate more hours of new HD programmes from the BBC.

Bryan Kirkwood, Executive Producer EastEnders says;

Christmas Day in Walford is traditionally, turkey, tinsel and turmoil for the residents of Albert Square. This year will be even more spectacular with viewers having the opportunity the watch the festive drama unfold in HD for the first time.

*Those shows which aren’t made in HD – including EastEnders up until Christmas Day – will still be on BBC ONE HD – but will be upscaled.

The BBC HD Channel will continue to bring programming such as Top Gear, Wimbledon, children’s programming, golf coverage, great drama, comedy, music and factual programmes from BBC TWO, THREE and FOUR throughout the week. We can also announce that this year we’ll bring viewers some of the last races of this year’s Moto GP in HD as a trial run for the sport on the channel.

The Autumn launch is the first stage in delivering BBC One in HD. The majority of programmes in the BBC One network evening schedule will be available in HD at launch, and by 2012 it is expected that the vast majority of all BBC One titles across all hours will be in HD. In time the channel will evolve to bring all programmes, news and current affairs to viewers in the nations and regions.

Follow the progress towards the channel launch on twitter @naglerHD.

Following on from the announcement made back in May of BBC One going high-definition, we can confirm that the BBC expect to launch this channel on the 3rd November 2010, if the expected frequency changes are accurate.

BBC One HD will mirror the standard-definition version with any programmes native to HD being available in that format, whilst all others will be upscalled.

This channel will join BBC HD (a mix of BBC Two, Three and Four) and ITV1 HD in the Freesat HD line-up.

Are Freesat making the most of product placement opportunities on television? Well the Freesat HD logo was certainly very obvious on a recent episode of Channel 4′s soap Hollyoaks.

The packaging suggests to us the product is the LG LF7700 LCD television, which is now discontinued and is currently causing much discussion regarding the introduction of iPlayer, or lack of!

What do you think, product placement?

Thanks to omnidirectional (digitalspy) for spotting this.

News taken from STV website

STV is to launch its first High Definition service, STVHD, bringing viewers Scotland’s most popular peak time TV schedule in crystal clear clarity, making programmes brighter and sharper than ever before.

STVHD will be a completely separate channel on Digital Terrestrial Television/Freeview on channel 51 and on Virgin Media on channel 113. It will be available in time for the World Cup launching on 11 June.

STV HD brings football games to life, adds more energy to entertainment and offers drama in all its gritty glory. The channel will feature all of the 2010 FIFA World Cup games exclusive to STV throughout the tournament in High Definition, bringing viewers closer to the most exciting sports event of the year like never before.

Viewers can get closer to the action of all their favourite shows, such as X-Factor, Coronation Street and the new series of Taggart, as this cutting edge technology presents STV in amazing detail.

Bobby Hain, managing director of Broadcasting at STV, said;

We’re thrilled to be bringing viewers a brand new STV HD service, offering our programmes in crystal clear vision and incredible clarity. We’re particularly pleased that we’ll be offering all of the STV World Cup games in HD for our nation of football fans on both DTT and Virgin Media.

STV is currently working with Sky, Freesat and ITV Network with a view to making STVHD available via satellite as soon as possible and will provide an update on this in due course.

Official Freesat press release

Freesat, the free-to-air satellite TV service, launches its latest integrated marketing campaign on 1st April. The campaign incorporates TV, press, digital, social media and PR and focuses on Freesat’s HD offering ahead of the World Cup that Freesat will show in HD nationwide and subscription-free on BBC HD and ITV1 HD channels.

The TV campaign, produced by Farm, focuses on the familiar interplay between a husband and wife as he tries to win ‘brownie points’ so he can get Freesat to enjoy the World Cup in HD. The ad opens with a family stuck in their car in a traffic jam in a spring shower. Dad sees a billboard at the side of the road which reads ‘GET THE FOOTBALL IN FREE HD’. He looks over at his wife and in an attempt to win ‘brownie points’ casually and nervously suggests “why don’t we have your Mum over for lunch on Sunday” to the obvious surprise of everyone else in the car. You can watch the ad here.

The 30″ TV advert will launch on ITV1 on the 1st April and will be supported by a 10″ as well as print, digital, PR and social media.

Freesat has also created a dedicated World Cup section of its website incorporating a range of new content designed to help people get ready to enjoy the tournament in HD on Freesat. From now until the climax of the World Cup in late June Freesat.co.uk will offer visitors a comprehensive match planner, World Cup Twitter aggregator and blog featuring guest blogger, pundit Lee Dixon. Traffic will be driven through to the site via social media activity including a viral ‘Brownie points’ game and a major World cup themed competition.

Will Abbott, Freesat Marketing and Communications Director comments:

Our new campaign comes at a particularly exciting time for Freesat as we recently passed the 1 million milestone – a fantastic achievement in such a highly competitive market. Being able to get the World Cup in HD, subscription free and across the whole country – no matter where you live – is a brilliant story for consumers. The TV commercial brings humour and a clear voice and personality to Freesat. The website content we’ve created and the social media activity we’re running will help us talk to as many world cup fans as possible and give them a chance to participate.

We’ll post up the campaign advert as soon as possible…

The TechniSat HDFS has been awarded ‘group test winner’ in a recent feature review in What Satellite Magazine.

The magazine tested the existing range of Freesat HD single tuner receivers against each other, including the TechniSat HDFS, Humax FOXSAT-HD, Sagem DSI86HD and Metronic SATHD100, with the TechniSat winning by some margin, though not really a surprise to most (we are unsure of the absence of any of the Harvard range – Grundig, Goodmans and Bush).

The final review scores were:

TechniSat 86%
Humax 80%
Metronic 75%
Sagem 69%

Courtesy once again of AndrewM (the first!), updated sales figures/ratio’s for Quarter 3 – 2009.

Ofcom recently released their Digital Progress Report for Q3 2009 (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtv_2009_q3/).

Including the information you previously published (http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/freesat-sales-sdhd-ratio, http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/freesat-sales-sdhd-ratio-update and http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/freesat-sales-figures-q2-2009), here are the updated Freesat sales figures as they stood at 30 September 2009:

Freesat unit sales – 2008

Q2 2008: 39,000 units (15,000 SD and 24,000 HD) (61% HD) [1]
Q3 2008: 69,000 units (20,000 SD and 49,000 HD) (71% HD) [2]
Q4 2008: 125,000 units (26,000 SD and 99,000 HD) (79% HD) [3]

Total sales for 2008: 233,000 units (61,000 SD and 172,000 HD) (74% HD) [3]

Freesat unit sales – 2009

Q1 2009: 117,000 units (26,000 SD and 91,000 HD) (78% HD) [4]
Q2 2009: 98,000 units (79% HD) [5]*
Q3 2009: 193,000 units (79% HD) [6]*

Total sales since launch:

643,000

As expected, Freesat sales figures showed a big increase in this quarter, with total unit sales by the end of the quarter standing at 643,000 and setting a new quarterly sales record of 193,000 units, nearly double the previous quarterly sales figure. Ofcom reports that the proportion of HD receivers is still constant at 79% (see note below). And as you reported in late November (http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/freesat-sales-pass-750000), Freesat said that sales had by that point surpassed 750,000. Given these figures, I definitely think that Freesat is on track to pass the million mark sometime this current quarter.

[1] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2008_q2/q2_2008
[2] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2008_03/q3_2008.pdf
[3] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2008_04/q42008.pdf
[4] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2009_01/q12009.pdf
[5] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2009_02/q22009.pdf
[6] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtv_2009_q3/dtv_2009_q3.pdf

*Note that starting in Q2 2009, Ofcom only reports the percentage of HD receivers sold, rather than giving a number of units, so it isn’t possible to give the units breakdown of SD and HD receivers. Also, it’s not completely clear if the percentage they give is for total sales or quarterly sales; I have assumed the latter.