The BBC-ITV Freesat platform has been available for a little over a month, but the service is far from complete, writes Julian Clover.
The first few weeks of Freesat’s life have been like almost any other multichannel TV platform, a glitzy launch, followed by set-top box shortages, before everything begins to settle down. Within a few weeks there will even be three versions of satellite IDTVs from Panasonic that will have integrated Freeview and Freesat tuners.
The free-to-air satellite platform jointly launched by the BBC and ITV on May 5 operates under the same one off fee, no subscription, premise as its terrestrial counterpart Freeview. The problem so far is that once you’ve stripped out the various regional variations of BBC One, you’re also left with roughly the same amount of channels, though that also assumes you actually have your local BBC and ITV region available. There are currently a total of 56 TV channels and 18 radio services. More must surely come on stream soon to take Freeview towards the 200 total promised at launch.
Because Freesat is cardless the user is required to enter their postcode to establish their local TV region and remember the editorial and transmission areas of ITV and BBC regions don’t necessarily match. Mischievously I entered the postcode for a friend who lives in Newmarket, Suffolk, and was greeted by BBC One London and ITV1 Central West, the two default channels. ITV apparently didn’t want to be accused of southern bias by purchasers north of Watford.
One month after the launch the information needed to link to channels already broadcast from the 28 degrees East orbital slot is not yet in position. The data has to go through Sky, which of course uses the same satellites, and Sky can only work so fast to get the information in place. What is curious is that with Freesat so long in the planning, how come this is even an issue?
Interactive services have also been slow to launch: there is an MHEG-5 version of the BBC’s digital text service and the speed at which pages can be accessed is on my Humax box considerably faster than has been seen on other platforms. There is however no news multiscreen or the kind of text information found with the radio stations broadcast on Freeview or Virgin Media.
The transition to ITV HD works smoothly. The Red Button appears when you switch to ITV during a high definition broadcast. When the transmission is over you are deposited back on your ‘regional’ ITV station. For ITV the start up costs for its HD service is increased by the loss of regional advertising revenue because ITV HD has a single stream of advertisements.
The launch of Freesat has ignited the BBC into promoting its own two-year old HD channel. Hamstrung by it being a ‘test service’ for the first 18 months of its life, while it went through the laboured process of approval with the BBC Trust, the Antiques Roadshow car chase promotion has been joined by a short explanation of the service by presenter Fiona Bruce. Unlike its ITV counterparts the BBC HD service is available cross platform, though the emphasis on its Freesat availability walks the path between information and undue prominence already trod by Freeview.
