TV with Thinus: HD

Showing posts with label HD. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2019

HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: HGTV in HD - why MultiChoice launched Discovery Inc.'s latest channel in high definition on DStv and the factors influencing what quality version a TV channel is launched and seen as.

MultiChoice added Discovery Inc.'s latest TV channel, HGTV (DStv 177) as a high definition (HD) channel straight out of the box - but not every channel is launched in HD and the majority of channels on DStv are still in standard definition (SD), with only some that have been upgraded from SD to HD over time.

So why was HGTV launched in HD, does it mean that all new TV channels that MultiChoice will be adding to DStv will be in HD immediately from launch, or did the context of the content influence the decision around HGTV?

This is one of the questions that TVwithThinus asked Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice's head of content strategy, at Discovery Inc.'s HGTV press conference held at the Table Bay hotel in Cape Town.

Aletta Alberts was one of the TV executive panellists on the afternoon of Day 2 of the 3-day press tour for the channel's launch in South Africa.

"It depends on whether at that specific moment we have capacity - satellite capacity in the sky - and depending on where we launch."

"Sometimes we might have capacity on IS20 - which is a satellite that sits over Southern Africa - but we don't have over Eutelsat 36B which sits over the rest of sub-Saharan Africa - that's the complication of it."

"Secondly, but actually most importantly, does the content lend itself to display HD in the best possible way? I think with HGTV this was a no-brainer," explained Aletta Alberts.

"Sometimes when we launch a regional channel it probably won't be in HD. It depends on the channel."

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 1: IN PICTURES - 37 photos of HGTV's beautiful cocktail party at sunset at the infinity pool of a Upper Clifton mansion in Cape Town.
ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: IN PICTURES - 29 photos of HGTV's official South African media launch event presentation.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Lee Hobbs, Discovery Inc.'s global brands boss for EMEA, says HGTV channel will bring 'loads of new and unseen content' to South Africa.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Discovery Inc.'s chief lifestyle brands officer Kathleen Finch says HGTV 'is a channel tailor-made for people who love their homes - and there are a lot of those people'.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Tarek El Moussa, the star of Flip or Flop on HGTV says it's 'a magical channel about real people working on real houses' and reveals what home means to him.
ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Announcing Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa and a new teaser trailer.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Discovery Inc.'s Africa boss Amanda Turnbull says new channel HGTV on DStv is about real people but also aspirational, 'which is why we fought really hard to have it on Compact as well so more people can see it'.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: MultiChoice's content boss Aletta Alberts says Discovery Inc.'s new HGTV channel will do well on DStv because 'HGTV fits so well with South African consumer culture'.
ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: IN PICTURES - 9 photos of HGTV's terrific 'Toolbox' lunch.

ALSO READ: HGTV DStv channel launch Day 2: Executives press conference opening remarks: 'HGTV is going to be both inspirational and aspirational'.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Turner International switches its Boomerang kids channel to high definition in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa.

Turner International has switched its Boomerang (DStv 302) kids channel carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform to a high definition (HD) feed on Tuesday, 5 March.

The switch from standard definition to HD wasn't announced, but TVwithThinus asked Turner about it on Tuesday morning, who confirmed it in an answer just before the close of business on Tuesday, saying the channel has indeed been upgraded.

Burson Cohn & Wolfe, the South African PR agency that reps Turner, told TVwithThinus that Boomerang indeed became an HD channel today.

It comes after viewers on Tuesday morning told me that they've noticed the change.

Turner in a statement to TVwithThinus says "continuing its ongoing commitment towards re-imagining television for African audiences, Turner has now made Boomerang available in high definition across Africa".

"The switch took place on the morning of 5 March, rolling out across the whole continent, effective immediately."

The change marks Turner's third African channel to transition to HD in recent months.

"Currently, South African viewers can enjoy watching their favourite kids channel, Cartoon Network (DStv 301), in HD, while the whole continent has access to the American blockbuster channel, TNT (DStv 137), in HD, alongside the 'more to laugh about' kids channel, Boomerang," says Turner.

Friday, June 8, 2018

SABC's TV channels finally switching to high definition (HD).

After a delay of years the SABC is finally switching its TV channels to high definition (HD) with the South African public broadcaster upgrading the broadcast quality of its channels from Monday 11 June.

SABC1 and SABC3 will both switch from standard definition (SD) to HD from Monday 11 June, with SABC2 that will go HD sometime next month in July.

The upgrade will ensure crisper, sharper and clearer images for viewers watching content on the public broadcaster where those programmes are broadcast or have been filmed in HD. The free-to-air commercial TV rival, e.tv, upgraded to HD in October 2013 with the SABC that has been lagging far behind.

Analogue viewers – those without a satellite dish or a decoder – will however still experience the SABC channels in standard definition.

The SABC channels will only be able to be broadcast in HD and be able to be seen in HD on MultiChoice’s DStv satellite pay-TV platform, StarSat from China’s StarTimes Media SA and On Digital Media (ODM), eMedia Investment’s Openview, and digital terrestrial television (DTT) platforms.

With less than a year left and tens of millions of South African viewers who haven’t been switched yet, it has meanwhile become clear that South Africa will once again very likely miss yet another DTT deadline and won’t make the June 2019 deadline to switch off analogue broadcast signals in the country since millions of TV households still have to make the switch.

South Africa has missed multiple DTT deadlines the past decade with the government-led process botched by corruption, in-fighting between stakeholders, drawn-out court cases, constant switching on broadcast standards and fighting over conditional access and encryption system issues.

South Africa started planning for the switch to DTT in 2008 but embarrassingly missed the June 2015 deadline that was set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to complete the process.

Meanwhile many poor TV households earning less than R3 200 who quality for a free government set-top box (STB) are however still waiting for one.

That’s also not solving the problem of households earning more than R3 200 but who are still very poor as well as those who can afford a STB, and how they are supposed to get one.

The government isn’t giving any indication of how it will incentivise households who don’t quality and who must buy one at around R700 – or get a DTT-enabled TV set – to do so. The government has only committed to hand out 5.2 million free STBs but millions more South African TV households need one and will have to buy one.

If the government were to switch off analogue signals before the bulk of TV households have migrated, it will not just take away a public service from millions of South Africans but will have a sudden debilitating impact on especially the SABC’s TV ratings when millions of viewers will "disappear" – the currency used to set ad rates, and with the size of a TV channel’s viewership that is the driving force behind its advertising income.

The department of communications needs another R6.6 billion to complete the DTT process.

There is also questions around the June 2019 deadline. The Democratic Alliance (DA) member of parliament, Marian Shinn in a recent statement said that the department of communications' latest new deadline of June 2019, apparently instituted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), is apparently bogus.

"The minister of communications now claims that a new deadline of mid-2019 has been agreed to with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a date that coincides with South Africa's next general election."

"Correspondence I have had with the ITU office in Geneva, shows that there is no 2019 deadline for South Africa," said Marian Shinn. "A parliamentary question I submitted to the minister asking documentary proof of the 'new' deadline has not been answered."

Thursday, September 17, 2015

SABC splash out on HD enabled studio; Hlaudi Motsoeneng excited by the colours that can change, will be used for World Cup Rugby commentary.

The SABC has splashed out millions of rands for a new high definition (HD) enabled studio that will be used for in-studio programming primarily for SABC sport broadcasts and SABC news and current affairs.

While the studio is HD enabled, currently none of the public broadcaster channels or any SABC content are actually seen anywhere in HD. The SABC says it plans to build similar studios in all of South Africa's provinces.

The unveiling of the SABC's new HD studio - which looks like a cheaper version of the existing SuperSport sports studio and set in Studio 6 in Randburg - was broadcast live on SABC News (DStv 404) on Wednesday on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

The SABC will use the new HD enabled set for the first time to do coverage of the upcoming 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament from a new set incorporating oval platforms that has been constructed in the studio.

The studio which was unveiled by the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi on Wednesday includes a touch screen which initially didn't work during the SABC's unveiling, 4 big video walls, 6 digital cameras and LED lighting.

Like SuperSport, the SABC will for the first time now be able to provide viewers on its channels with augmented three dimensional graphics for sport, for instance showing statistics of players and teams.

Coverage of the upcoming local municipal elections as well as the 2016 Olympic Games next year will also take place from the new SABC studio.

Faith Muthambi said the HD enabled studio will help the SABC for digital terrestrial migration (DTT).

She said on SABC News that SABC viewers will be "able to watch rugby from their living rooms, comfortably so, with high definitition television".

Meanwhile the long-stalled switch-over from analogue broadcasting in South Africa is years behind schedule and has no official commercial switch-on date yet.

Faith Muthambi didn't reveal the cost of the new HD enabled studio of the SABC but said it saved the SABC R11 million as the broadcaster splurged on champagne for the 4th time this year to toast the new studio.

The SABC's controversial and famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng said he's excited about the SABC's HD studio because it's got social media and a touch screen and the colours change.

While the new SABC CEO Frans Matlala was present but sat at the back in the audience and didn't speak, Hlaudi Motsoeneng was once again in the limelight under the bright studio spotlights and spoke on behalf of the SABC.

"I'm very glad that we are competing with international broadcasters. The technology is on par with international broadcasters. This is a multi-purpose studio which means SABC can use different units. The colours change," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"If Bafana Bafana play the colours will reflect Bafana. If Springboks play it will represent the Springboks. I'm very excited about this new technology."

'The colours, the sets, the lights, they just change. I mean you can set the lights, whatever, blue. Whatever colour that you need. We are able to do that. For us it is very exciting," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng on SABC News.

The first official broadcast from the SABC's new HD able set will be on Friday at 19:30 on SABC2.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

BREAKING. As e.tv becomes a high definition channel, broadcaster switches to HD format; filming all local content in HD from now on.

You're reading it here first.

As e.tv had prepared the past months to switch South Africa's only commercial free-to-air TV channe to a high definition (HD) TV channel, it is now changing its broadcast format from standard definition (SD) to HD and will commission, and see delivered and produced, all of its local South African TV content in the HD format.

In addition from now on e.tv will also only acquire rights to TV content available in HD, or where it's not possible upscale the content to close to HD quality.

It's not yet clear when, or whether, MultiChoice will be upgrading e.tv's channel status to the e.tv HD channel in the way it did with M-Net which switched to M-Net HD.

e.tv HD will however roll out and be seen in HD first on Platco Digital's OpenView HD (OVHD) direct-to-home (DTH) satellite platform from 15 October when OVHD goes on sale in South Africa.

e.tv, from Sabido Investments, which is turning 15 years old, says the switch from SD to HD is necessitated by remaining and keeping up with the international TV standard and that e.tv needs to remain on par with international television broadcasting benchmarks.

"Ons has to simply look at the growth in sales of HD television sets in the country to see the need to deliver quality and entertaining television to the broader South African market [in HD]," Monde Twala, e.tv's group head of channels tells TV with Thinus.

"e.tv is extremely excited to be able to offer our viewers the best available quality content. The channel has changed its broadcast format from SD to HD. From October all our locally commissioned content will be delivered and produced in the HD format. This includes all international content such as movies, kids' animation and series," says Monde Twala.

He says "HD content will be phased in over a period, across all our themed channels."

"Content that is not filmed in HD will be upgraded to HD as it is a standard for HD broadcasters worldwide," says Monde Twala. "We are working closely with the production sector and international suppliers to ensure that we deliver a better and improved quality picture for our market."

"This also means that the TV consumers in South Africa will be the ultimate winners."

e.tv as a broadcaster now joins MultiChoice as a pay-TV provider in providing an HD offering to South African viewers. The SABC and On Digital Media (ODM) running the struggling TopTV satellite pay-TV service only have SD channels and are lagging behind in rolling out channels in high definition.

ALSO READ: e.tv officially unveils its additional 4 further "+" TV channels; says 'viewers have inspired us to think beyond just one channel".