An interesting, if slightly worrying report from RXTVinfo:
Freeview HD channels could be removed next year
I suspect this is, once again, all part of the BBC's strategy to move solely online after its charter renewal in 2027.
Oh well, time to resurrect my CRT Panasonic.
Does this mean the end of the licence fee? I assume the BBC will make you sign up and pay for the online service and if there are no transmissions without signing up there will be no access?
@slidertogrid I have absolutely no idea, Rich. I can imagine that radio could be funded from general taxation (because it's cheap) and that TV would become a subscription model, yes. Certain politicians (when sober) used to love citing the Netflix model except as far as I know, Netflix doesn't carry news programmes or any other Public Service material - and I also seem to recall it isn't doing so well these days either.
Meanwhile, there's a lot of noise in the ITV camp that it is having to tighten its belt as advertising revenue is drying up.
I suppose the way the younger generations 'watch TV' is changing. My cousin's kids went to Uni and there was no TV sets in rooms or common rooms anymore. There used to be as when I had the shop in Nottingham we did a lot of student rentals which were short term contracts just for the terms. My cousin's kids just used their 'phones or tablets for entertainment. Nobody sitting down together to watch the same programme like we would do.
Interesting that Netflix are not doing so well. I have heard that sales of DVDs were on the up because of the cost of boxsets. A couple of local auctions now selling DVDs again after a break of a few years. I used to find boxes of them by the skips "free to take" but not anymore....
I find very little worth watching on live TV these days. I'll miss radio 4 on Longwave more than I would if live TV was shut down.
I find very little worth watching on live TV these days. I'll miss radio 4 on Longwave more than I would if live TV was shut down.
Snap. I will mourn the passing of LW in the UK. When I did my road trip from Munich to Peterborough 25 years ago I knew I was getting closer to home when I could pick up Radio 4 on the car's radio: somewhere in France, or maybe even Belgium.
I think the last two bits of what now seem to be termed "linear TV" I watched on the BBC were the edited, colourised Doctor Who story on BBC4 and of course, the new Wallace and Gromit. I do however record and watch a fair bit of Talking Pictures TV - the Rupert Davies Maigret, Alfred Burke's Public Eye and Space Patrol!
I've only watched Freeview once since moving home two years ago and that was when my internet was down for ten days. The only two HD channels I used to watch were removed from Freeview even before I moved home. I now have a very cheap satellite receiver I can use with a legacy dish in the event of another emergency.
It will be the old story of “ you don’t know what you have till it’s gone”. I wonder what the loss of income will do for Arqiva, the infrastructure must cost a fortune to maintain.
Frank
I've only watched Freeview once since moving home two years ago and that was when my internet was down for ten days.
Some channels will have to improve their streaming "apps" immensely before then: I put the TPTV Encore one onto my Amazon Fire and it's absolute rubbish.
@cathovisor I tend to think of Winter Hill so there can’t be much value there but yes they must own a large amount of land that is valuable.
Frank
It will be the old story of “ you don’t know what you have till it’s gone”. I wonder what the loss of income will do for Arqiva, the infrastructure must cost a fortune to maintain.
I'm sure their profits would take a hit if they actually paid some of the rent they owe.
I'm reminded that it was said that when FM radio broadcasting started that the broadcasters started being rather more earnest about limiting transmitted AM bandwidth than they had been previously.... In other words, they want to encourage a shift towards a newer format that suits them better in one way or another (or constructively dismiss from an established format). The top end of the former UHF TV allocation has already gone to mobile comms, I don't doubt that the remaining spectrum is being eyed up by folk with expansive cheque-books, even if the comparatively longer wavelengths make for less convenient aerials than SHF.
