F1 in HD? Six Nations and 5.1?

Danielle Nagler has posted an update over on the BBC HD blog that's informative. Well worth reading in full, and here are a couple of the headlines you may be interested in:

• A decision about F1 and HD sits primarily with the rights holder (F1/Bernie Ecclestone), rather than with the BBC. We are keen to do it as soon as possible.
• There is no surround sound on the Six Nations Rugby as it is an additional cost and the BBC decide whether to broadcast in 5.1 on an event by event basis.

And she also explains why the BBC has opted for a full HD channel rather than a simulcast with upscaled SD content.

Telegraph: is HDTV worth it?

Here's a piece from the Telegraph this week that asks the question but doesn't really answer it. To my mind, HD is "worth it" but only if you have a 37in or bigger panel - with 32in or smaller the difference is marginal unless you sit really close to the screen. The article doesn't mention that the rendering of fast moving HD action is often dependent on a suitably fast refresh rate on the panel either. Not the most informative guide for the HD novice but it of course makes blindingly obvious the gulf between Sky HD and Virgin's offering

Berkett's words on HD

A full transcript of Neil Berkett's presentation is now available online (courtesy of www.seekingalpha.com). It's mainly financial in the presentation's content and with the Q&A, but there were a few tidbits relevant to HD and the V+:

We also had another good quarter of V+ growth. We've doubled the number of subscribers in the last year. Our research shows that DVR customers churn less than other customers. Even with a strong growth we still only penetrated 15% of that digital base so we feel there is still a strong growth opportunity here.

All of our half million DVR boxes are HD ready and we intend to grow our HD content and capability this year. Clearly, our competitors have indicated that this is an area where they intend to invest and grow and we are determined that we are not going to allow them to build competitive advantage in this area. Of course, our competitive TV advantages in VOD and we already have over 100 out of HD video-on-demand content and we will be expanding this.

The key HD content that we do today are premium sports and movie channels that Sky will not [inaudible]. As you know, OFCOM is conducting a market investigation into pay TV and that's our last consultation paper proposed a wholesale regime that would oblige Sky to wholesale its premium content including HD to us at economic rates. We are proactively engaged with OFCOM and we hope to hear the next steps in May or June.

[...] I've expressed my frustrations on several occasions, publicly and privately at the complexity and opaquely of the regulatory environment of which OFCOM and the Competition Commission needs to work within. We are hopeful that Digital Britain itself will start to address some of the deficiencies in the process such that when a regulator can come out and say there is some fundamental things that are wrong in this market that it could still take months and, yes, it could take years. So – unfortunately, we will continue to work with the regulators and with government to ensure that the whole of the market get access to content that is withheld by a dominant player and hopefully, UK consumers can reap the benefit of it.

Investors applaud Virgin performance

Us customers may have had a tough time swallowing the lack of news of high definition services in yesterday's quarterly results from Virgin Media, but the NY investment market seemed to be mighty impressed by Mr Berkett's words. Virgin Media's stock value rose 10% to almost $5 yesterday, bucking the trend elsewhere in the markets (the Dow Jones and Nasdaq actually fell 1%)

Coming "Soon"

I haven't got the time to sit through Virgin MD Neil Berkett's presentation to investors this lunchtime, but the slides supporting it are now up on the Virgin Media Investors' site here.
It's mainly a financial presentation, but on slide 9 there is the following:

• Developing our HD capability>100 hours of HD VOD content; Launching more HD channels this year
• Ofcom Market Investigation may deliver access to Sky premium sports and movie channels on HD

Please feel free to draw your own conclusions from this exciting statement. And here's that link again for those looking for high definition channels today rather than a vague promise of tomorrow...

Broadband package change

More news in advance of tomorrow's Virgin Media results announcements: all 2mb Broadband cable customers are to be upgraded to 10mb at no extra cost. Details on the Virgin Media site and over at Guardian Media.

ITV Player launches today (Feb 24)

Rolling out today across the regions is ITV Player (oddly called "ITV Net Player" in the Catch Up On Demand menu).




UPDATE: Here's the rollout schedule
The rollout is being split up over a few days.
Knowsley Platform 24th February
Langley Platform 25th February
Bromley Platform 26th February

Virgin Media new services this week?

Virgin Media announces its last quarter and full year results on Wednesday morning, so I'm running a quick poll to see what people are expecting as anaccompanying news announcement. You can pick multiple answers if you think there are to be several additional services.

Wonder Boys showing on BBC HD

Saturday night movie time: at 9pm on BBC HD: Wonder Boys, Curtis Hanson's comedy drama starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire and the always-excellent Robert Downey Jnr

Film4 HD proposed for Freeview

Bandwidth-deprived Freeview will have four HD slots available once it introduces newer technology next year and it looks like Channel 4 wants two of them. A proposal has been made to Ofcom for an HD version of Film4 (see story here). It's not definite as it is up against another proposal (from Five) for the fourth slot but it's good to know that the cash-strapped C4 stable is prioritising its stella film channel for HD over the more popular (but less watchable) E4.

For me, this is an essential addition to Virgin's line up - if they can't sort this one out, I'll be the first in the queue for a new HD Freeview box when they ship and Virgin can wave goodbye to my hard-earned cash each month.