All posts by Roger Martlew
Below are all of Roger Martlew's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I am pleased to see that the specifications for new DAB receivers to comply with the government's plan for radio digital switchover include DAB+.
www.culture.gov.uk/publications_full/9733.aspx#2
Let's hope that this will enable higher quality broadcasts, not just more low quality ones.
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Does anyone know whether this channel will be available by satellite?
It is difficult to tell from the map whether we will be able to receive it. In all probability we are just a few hundred metres north of the petal's line.
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I doubt if commercial radio stations will be the first to broadcast in DAB+, they will want the uptake of compatible receivers to reach a significant level to make it worthwhile.
As ever the BBC will have to take the lead.
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With regard to the truly local stations that have yet to go on DAB: In 2002 L Band frequencies were allocated for this purpose.
DAB Ensembles WorldWide
Whatever happened to these, as they seem to have been quietly dropped? (L407TT)
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Not only is reception good of the new mux in Longton & Southport, but I have got a perfectly good signal as far away as Lancaster services.
It seemed very strange listening to Dee on DAB there when the FM signal is very local to Chester.
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R
How many Freeview, Freesat, Sky and cable homes are there in thSunday 21 April 2013 12:15AM
Ormskirk
Where does YouView fit into this? It is Freeview plus IPTV, which is a bit like some cable extras.
Where would we fit into the schematic, as we have Youview, Freesat, Freeview and Multisat?
This is overkill I suppose.
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R
Why does BBC Worldwide not make more profit for the Licence FeeSunday 8 September 2013 12:40AM
Ormskirk
Without wishing to defend the BBC or Mark Thompson, BBC Worldwide's profits going down could be due to a number of factors that are not obvious from their accounts alone, Increasingly the programmes appear to be made the BBC that can be sold worldwide are funded in partnership with foreign broadcasters. Many documentaries are made in conjunction with the Open University, or commissioned by the BBC from private studios. For example Aardman, There are also intellectual rights to the programme format that may be involved.
Any of these may have savvy and negotiated better returns than in the past forcing down profits in BBC Worldwide in the last 10 years.
Furthermore there is no doubt a sale from BBC UK to BBC Worldwide up front and Mark Thompson may have himself demanded better up front fees,
I appreciate I am only speculating, but it seems to me that looking solely at BBC Worldwide's bottom line profit can be misleading. Without looking at onward sales contracts and the bigger picture the supposed conclusion could be wrong.
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It is regrettable that so few DAB radios are being sold with DAB+ capability, despite them being in the digital switchover specs. As ever it will probably be up to the BBC to lead the way towards DAB+. It is highly unlikely that there will be a great public anger about not being able to use their DAB sets immediately if the BBC take the lead, as they wouldn't turn off the current DAB for DAB+ immediately. It will just be a case of having DAB+ when they change their radio. This was the case with FM, where it took many years for AM only radios to be abandoned. Even now those 50 year old AM radios are still usable.
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It had been my understanding that the point of the BBC stopping BBC Three would be to avoid the transmission cost. Surely the transmission of a BBC1 +1 service would defeat that objective, leaving only a small saving from not having the scheduling cost of BBC3.
If there will no longer be a broadcast BBC3 channel, apart from continuing popular online programme conyent, few people will know what they can expect from new programme titles and therefore it can be expected that online viewing figures will decline after a while.
Surely if any channel were to be dropped,, it should be by amalgamating CBBC and CBeebies. After all, during school terms CBBC's potential viewers cannot be watching during the school day. So CBeebies, for pre-school children until 4pm and CBBC after. Or is that too simplistic?
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Thursday 7 February 2013 11:31AM
At present even free satellite services only offer 1 extra HD Channel (NHK World), all other HD channels are premium channels through Sky. I cannot believe that any would go terrestrial, just because the facility is available. 10 additional free channels is wishful thinking.
Even is they were allowed to charge, none of the terrestrial subscription services (e.g. TopUp TV) have been a runaway success, and those a moving towards additional broadband services: So, although I hope to be proved wrong, DTH Terrestrial HDTV is unlikely to attract any broadcaster.