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We were recently given the opportunity to present questions to Freesat on those topics we felt were of most interest to you; it was a little bit of rush to send them in so didn’t have the opportunity this time to ask what you wanted to know, but from reading through comments, we came up with the questions below which Freesat have kindly answers. No ground breaking responses unfortunately, especially on those questions related to the broadcasters as we’d need to hear from them directly; but worth a read anyway.

We had requested this FAQ session from noticing the change in viewers perceptive on what they now required from Freesat one year on; more HD content being top of most viewer’s wish lists, as well as increased product lines with new exciting products. We made the point to Freesat that the next year will be even more important than the first, not only in obtaining new customers but retaining existing ones too; we are sure they’ll be doing all they can to make Freesat even better, but don’t forget they are actively visiting this site so by all means leave your comments.

ITV HD had been promoted as “exclusive to Freesat” to help encourage uptake; what are Freesat’s thoughts on Sky now having access to ITV HD via the new EPG software? Have ITV HD decided upon a more open policy or should this not have been made possible? What are the potential impacts on Freesat uptake?

ITV HD remains an exclusive red button service on freesat. It is not listed on any Sky EPG and is only available to a small number of boxes via a complicated manual tune / scan.

HD sales have been a large percentage of all Freesat sales (approx. 80%). Could the reason for this as well as the obvious be that SD boxes have been so hard to obtain from Alba Group? Have Freesat been made aware of such lack of availability and are you doing anything to assist?

HD receivers have made up the majority of freesat sales from day one. We work closely with both manufacturers and retailers to try and ensure sufficient stock of all Freesat approved products is readily available. We are aware that recent demand for SD boxes has been high, particularly in some rural areas and those places to receive Freeview. As mentioned on Join Freesat, we are confident that increased volumes of stock will help meet the demand.

Are any other manufacturers in the frame for developing Freesat products (except Sony)? What restrictions are on current manufacturers?

All freesat products go through a strict product development process that enables freesat and partner manufacturers to maintain the highest quality of freesat approved receivers. We are in regular conversation with manufacturers across the industry and plan to launch new products later this year.

What was the original target figure for sales in the first 12 months? What is the target for the next 12 months?

Our sales targets are not public but we can confirm that we exceeded first year forecasts and are on course for continuing this strong growth through 2009.

Why wasn’t 200 channels reached when originally suggested for the first year?

The economic outlook has changed significantly since the early part of 2008 and it’s a challenging market for channels, retailers and manufacturers. We’ve already grown our line-up from around 80 channels at launch a year ago to over 140 today. We’re continuing to add channels all the time and will be launching IPTV catch-up and on-demand services in the future.

Why content of HD programming remains relatively small, especially from ITV?

HD TV production and distribution still remain expensive for broadcasters. Despite this Freesat shows up to 70 hours of HD programming per week for free. BBC HD has increased its scheduled hours twice since launch and is planning to increase them further in 2009. ITV shows peaktime programming in HD most nights of the week and is increasing the amount of HD programming available this year.

What are Freesat doing to pursue the possibility of additional channels joining, especially those such as C4HD, Fiver and Five US?

Freesat works tirelessly to bring more channels onto the platform. We’re committed to growing the amount of HD programming on Freesat and are in regular contact with broadcasters including Channel 4 and Five.

Whilst it would be nice to publish good news all the time for Freesat, some things just can’t be ignored, and tonight’s attempt by ITV to deliver high-definition coverage of the Champions League final was appalling!

Throughout the first half there were constant break-ups in sound as well as picture, followed by 10 minutes of intermittent black lines down the screen. Eventually we were left to enjoy ITV flicking through cameras from studio to player, to pitch, before they pulled the plug on the HD transmission completely.

The second half was an improvement, but only because it was up-scaled HD but certainly better than the “is it my eyes that are blurry” standard-definition quality.

We can only hope that one day ITV will improve!

Update: 15:05 28/05/09

Statement from Freesat;

The disruption to last night’s football on ITV 1 and ITV HD was due to unforeseen technical problems in Rome and affected other TV services showing the match on ITV

With the conclusion of Wild At Heart this evening, ITV have announced the return of Lewis to take the 9pm slot on Sunday evenings.

Lewis, which is expected to be available in high-definition via the ITV HD red button service is based on Inspector Robbie Lewis (played by Kevin Whately), previous sidekick of Inspector Morse. Lewis is a detective drama always sure to deliver plenty of intriguing murder mystery, with absorbing plots and intelligently built tension, all set in the idyllic surroundings of Oxford and its University campus; which should offer up some fantastic HD shots.

More information on what we believe is Lewis’s fourth series can be found at http://www.itv.com/Drama/copsandcrime/Lewis/default.html.

Lewis starts on Sunday 22nd March 2009 – 9.00pm to 11.00pm

Well, it’s not the first time and certainly won’t be the last; ITV HD are once again suffering from shocking sound drops during the Coventry City v Chelsea football match. The sound drop’s appear to be happening every 5-10 seconds making it almost impossible to enjoy, although the picture quality is good.

We can only hope that by continually highlighting these issues, ITV will take notice and stop making such fundamental errors. Once or twice can be excused, but this is almost every match now…let’s hope it’s resolved in time for the next match on ITV HD, which is Fulham v Manchester United at 4.45pm this afternoon.

Suffer from the same fault, let us know your opinion?

ITV can be emailed at viewerservices@itv.com

Update (20:22) – ITV decided to broadcast the Fulham v Manchester United game in SD only due to this sound issue which wouldn’t have been resolved in time. The red button option was still available but was only providing an upscaled standard-definition picture which was clearly obvious, but at least the sound was ok. Hopefully ITV will release a statement, we most certainly deserve one.

ITV have today announced a 41% drop in profits for 2008. It comes as no surprise that ITV profits are down, they’ve struggled for a number of years now, but with an expected 600 job cuts and £65m sliced from the budget, it poses the question what influence this will have on Freesat.

ITV are joint owners of Freesat with the BBC, and whilst funds will already have been allocated and taken into account for further development of the platform, you have to wonder how far their budget will go, and whether Freesat is as much a priority to them as their other projects, after all, Freesat is a ‘not for profit’ platform.

In addition, many will be concerned about high-definition; ITV whilst building on their existing content are still struggling to achieve more than 5-10 HD hours per week, via their red button service exclusive to Freesat. We can only hope that this severe drop in profits won’t damage their ability to think to the future.

If we can get a response from ITV on Freesat and HD specifically, we’ll let you know.

What do you think? Do you feel that this will have any impact?

I’ve been meaning to get around to this for ages, Snoods, a member of digitalspy, has been posting up screen-shots from BBC HD, ITV HD and Luxe HD since May 2008, showing just how amazing our high-definition channels can look when they make the effort.

I’d whole heartedly recommend you visit Snoods Freesat HD site on Flickr and see for yourself, a lot of effort goes into taking these screen-shots and uploading them, so the more people that see them, the better, and it may just encourage more avid television viewers to buy Freesat.

At present, BBC HD offer the most high-definition content on channel 108, with ITV HD still showing on average 2 hours per day via the red button on ITV1. Luxe HD is an FTA channel but presently not included on the Freesat EPG, you will have to add in ‘non-freesat’ mode. C4 HD will be a great addition once available hopefully this year.

(Sorry, couldn’t resist included an image of Torres rolling around on the floor!!!)

With 2009 fast approaching, what can we expect from Freesat in the new year? Our poll which continues on the left hand side would suggest that more than 50% of you want C4HD as a priority, but in reality will that happen? We know that C4HD is currently tied into agreement (encrypted) with Sky so unless they can terminate early, or the contract concludes in 2009, can we expect this channel at all in the coming year! We will continue to try and find out the in’s and out’s of the contract, but if anyone knows linked to C4 or Sky, let us know.

So what is more likely to appear in 2009? Well BBC are still promising the on-demand iPlayer, directly linked to your Freesat digital box via the Ethernet port. This seems likely to go ahead around spring time, assuming no further delays. Kangaroo looks dead in the water at this point.

Will we see more manufacturers on board? Possible, talks are on-going with a number of large manufacturers although given the current economic climate, this could be a little longer than expected. It’s certain that Metronic will have their HD digital box out soon, although retailing at £150 wouldn’t result in many sales. Metronic’s PVR receiver is also due within the first quarter of 2009, although again, this could be delayed given that the HD receiver from them already has. Alba Group are said to be developing a PVR too, but no timescale as yet, and rumours of Panasonic working on a combined PVR and Blu-ray player/recorder just won’t go away, although the official PR release at this stage is that nothing is in the pipe-line.

So what about other channels? Well Freesat’s target of 200 channels has not yet been reached, so the remaining FTA channels can certainly be expected in the coming months, although will this include FTA channels such as Sky News, we are still awaiting confirmation (don’t forget Sky News and others can be added in non-freesat mode). Will channel Five manage to find space on 2D to bring us Fiver and Five US, lets hope so. As for other channels, well many still expect that the line-up should/will match Freeview, but that’s highly unlikely, as channels such as Dave, UK Gold etc are tied into subscription contracts on DSAT with Sky, so unless these channels/networks can find ways of raising revenue through advertising rather than subscription, it’s not going to happen unless Freesat’s viewing audience substantially increases.

Most will no doubt agree that ITV HD need to drastically improve the quality and quantity of HD programming, at the very least to match a constantly improving BBC HD. Would ITV HD benefit from having a separate channel than using the existing red button facility? Maybe, but the possible downside of this would be access to the channel via Sky, which in-turn could reduce Freesat’s potential viewing figures.

Rather than expected, we hope that BBC and ITV can improve the quality of sound on Freesat, with many, if not all programmes being broadcast in stereo, rather than Dolby 5.1 allowing us to enjoy films etc in surround sound quality. This must surely be a priority?

The platform thus far has been largely successful, but lets hope for an even better year ahead for Freesat, with increased popularity and exposure.

Happy new year from all involved with joinfreesat.co.uk and thanks to all of you that have contributed over the past year.

Ok, this news is about a week old but we do receive a number of emails asking why ITV HD is not available on UTV or STV, the NI/Scottish regional ITV channel.

Both UTV and STV turned down the opportunity to receive ITV HD when it was offered to them a few months ago, and since then the only way to access ITV HD from those regions was to change your postcode to an alternative ITV region, not ideal!

Since then however Freesat have added ITV London on channel 977 as a default, so anyone can now go to that channel for ITV HD when an appropriate HD programme is on. Great! Much easier than changing postcode each time!

This year will see the UK’s first ever HD Christmas from Freesat with a feast of high-definition programme highlights. A whole range of Christmas films, comedies, dramas and family entertainment will be brought to life with vivid HD picture and sound.

BBC HD (channel 108)

BBC HD will be showcasing a huge range of family films over the Christmas period, meaning viewers won’t have to rely on the family Blu-ray player for a dose of HD entertainment. Films include:

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Brothers Grimm
The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
Starter For Ten
Toy Story 2
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death

The BBC HD Channel will keep the nation laughing with the return of some comedy favorites, including the welcome return of all-new The Royle Family and Gavin and Stacey, all in HD;

After You’ve Gone Christmas Special
Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special
Lead Balloon
The Royle Family Christmas Special

Other festive HD highlights from the BBC will include the Shrek The Halls Christmas Special from everyone’s favourite green film star, the Christmas special of Strictly Come Dancing, and Michael Palin returning to bring the world to our screens in 80 Days Revisited. In addition Casanova, Doctor Who Prom, Lark Rise to Candleford, The 39 Steps and The Queen’s speech will all be available in HD on BBC HD Channel over Christmas.

ITV HD (via the red button on channel 103)

ITV HD will be showing a veritable feast of Christmas movies and entertainment, as well as top-drawer sport over the Christmas period and the finale of all-singing, all-dancing drama Britannia High.

Movie lovers will get to experience a range of blockbuster films in full HD, including;

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
True Lies
Ali G
Bird on a Wire
Meaning of Life

The drama won’t be limited to blockbuster films though, with ITV HD showing UEFA Champions League matches in HD, making every blade of grass, bead of sweat and even the odd tear, even more life like.

Now is a great time to own Freesat, so if you haven’t already taken the plunge, there’s still time before the big day!

Just in case you are not aware of our ITV HD TV Schedule, check it out, there are 8 programmes in high-definition over the next 2 weeks, which is quite a lot for ITV. Still lacking a certain depth of programming, but it’s better than what we’ve seen from them lately. Check it out!

Big thank you to Snoods for the updates…as always.