It still would be better to have four TV streams that are BBC
ONE HD, BBC TWO HD, BBC THREE/CBBC HD, BBC FOUR/CBeebie HD which can get
the full MPEG4 capacity at the "simulcast" point and then revert to
standard (720x576i) mode for the rest of the time.
This would cost no more than providing the single HDTV channel
(no extra capacity) but would be easier to understand.
That does assume that no two (or three) BBC channels would be showing HD
programming at the same time. Probably true at the minute, but not
forever.
Yes, some special software would be required to jump to the BBC
nations and regions, but nothing is impossible.
I'm no expert, but I know that whilst nothing is impossible, when it
comes to set top boxes, things that appear to be possible, often aren't
without a huge amount of work.
What I do know is that changing a channel's configuration on the fly
isn't that easy and simple - in the world of interactive TV we'd love to
have the options to suddenly close down one of our video streams and
replace it with (say) 10 audio streams, just like that. But we don't.
It requires just a bit more thinking about and configuration.
And not least we have to think about the poor so and so who has to cross
reference all the schedules to ensure that BBC One and BBC Two haven't
both put out HD programmes at the same time ;)
That's my point. There is no point investing in a new brand of
"the BBC HD channel" which is a simulcast service if it is to be dropped
eventually.
Ah well, I suspect people are in agreement there - the amount of
promotion the BBC HD brand has had since it launched has been almost
minimal.
There's LOADS of space on the Eurobird 1 & Astra 2A/2B/2C/2D
<http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html> satellites, and as I say, I propose
that the BBC services are in SD when they are not in HD mode, requiring
little bandwidth.
Almost all of the BBC's content is on Astra 2D because it's beam is
focussed on the UK, thus allowing programmes to be broadcast without the
encryption which would be required otherwise due to rights issues. ITV
similarly use this same satellite for the same reasons.
To use Astra 2A/B/C/Eurobird 1 (which have a pan-European footprint)
would therefore require encryption (we could debate this individual
point til the cows come home, but I won't because frankly it wouldn't
change anything - the BBC and ITV went in the clear by moving to Astra
2D in the first place, and any move back to 2A/B/C would either be
costly or require encryption). Encryption is, by its very nature, not
feasible with Freesat, so any broadcasting a Freesat service would
either need pan-European rights for all their content (or at very least,
not have content where it matters!) or be on Astra 2D.
So there's a lot of potential demand on 2D. And at some point, it will
fill up.
