Freeview HD - DTG

A few posts ago I reported that things were hotting up on the Freeview HD front. In fact, several of the London evening papers went as far as to make the news the front page lead that evening - mis-reporting what is currently only a proposal with a long way to travel. Now that the hype has started to calm down, a more realistic timescale is emerging. The following is from The Register, and refers to comments made by the influential Digital TV Group (DTG).

[Reminder: The OFCOM proposal is that the BBC vacate Freeview multiplex B so that equipment can be upgraded to handle the upcoming DVB-T2 broadcast standard (still subject to Department for Culture, Media and Sport approval).]

"The DTG says that ..."everyone involved in the upgrade should be wary that DVB-T2 isn't even a standard on paper yet. These things always take a lot longer than people think, especially when it comes to a new technology like this, we don't think it's likely HD will be on air before 2010 or 2011.

"It took from 1995 to 1998 for the DVB-T standard to be finalised and we've had errors before. The first generation of Freeview set-top boxes didn't work very well at all."

...

"The DTG argues that the four channel plan should only serve as a stop-gap before a full scale terrestrial HD deployment. It says more spectrum will be needed if Freeview is to continue to compete with the multiplicity of HD services on offer from satellite and cable. The digital TV industry's past is littered with the corpses of services that had a low number of channels and were rejected by consumers, such as ONDigital and BSB. "

Interesting stuff. I guess most of us have Freeview in our houses somewhere (we've got three tuners in TVs and recorders) but HD will need additional boxes. The longer time scales make it more likely that VM will have its HD house in order long before Freeview HD is widely available. The advent of FreeSat is more imminent - details of that should emerge in the next month or two, assuming it's announced launch in the first half of this year is still on track.

Virgin to become Freeview+?

I shared the cynicism of some when a story appeared in The Times this weekend suggesting Virgin Media was focusing on broadband rather than premium TV services going forward, but it's repeated, with quotes, in The Guardian today:

[Neil Berkett, acting Virgin Media CEO] wants to move the focus away from TV and onto more mass-market households who do not need Sky's sports and movie channels but do want more than basic Freeview digital TV. Virgin Media reckons these households can be tempted with services such as video on demand that require fast broadband.
"Despite our technical advantage we are still not really standing out from the crowd," admitted Mr Berkett. "I really do want to re-focus our energies onto the broadband platform."
"Think of Freeview as a nursery and you have millions of kindergarten kids who once they have got the taste for multi-channel TV may upgrade an element of the service."

I, for one, find this v. depressing. So those of us who at the top end of the market (VIP package, V+ dependent) are now going to have to settle for a Freeview+ service? That line about the Sky Movies and Sports channels is particularly concerning, especially at a time when there's a popular misconception with the general public that you can't get any Sky channels on cable. Clumsy or just plain foolish? Or ominous...is he saying that VM customers may not have the Sky Premium channels going forward?
I have cable out of choice - I do not want a dish on the outside of my house but Virgin Media appear to be going out of their way to push me to Sky with their lack of investment in HD services. If the FreeSat service next year offers more HD than cable I may even go there. Even though I work in IT I do not want or need 50mb broadband at home - the 20mb I currently have is more than sufficient and what use is it if the downloaders of pirated TV, movies and games are capped with download limits? That's the same folly as having a car capable of racing at 250mph with a speed limit on 50 on the roads!
I could be wrong...it could be that Virgin are planning to shift all their services over to IPTV and everything will be delivered over IP. But I don't think so. I think Burkett is desperate for a strategy that differentiates the VM offering and pulls in some more customers. Freeview+ certainly ain't it and besides, BT Vision is already offering that with limited success.
Somebody buy this company quick!