DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING: Perspectives on the Future

Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Multimedia
Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, Updated 2003 Jeffrey Bird
Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
 Jeffrey Bird (July, 2002), (Updated May 2003). PO Box 455, Cheltenham, Victori
a 3192, Australia. Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
ABSTRACT
This thesis will provide a broad overview of the digital television landscape, p
roviding the reader with an understanding of the underlying technologies, their
potential to offer new and improved services, as well as their inherent risks. F
ocusing on digital television enhancements, High Definition television, High Def
inition content acquisition and interactive television, this thesis will reveal
a rapidly evolving set of technologies that promise to significantly alter the t
elevision viewing experience, from dramatically improved pictures to viewer init
iated interaction and content control. On the basis of this information, content
producers, broadcasters, advertisers and other interested parties will be assis
ted in identifying the opportunities, trends and potential pitfalls of digital t
elevision broadcasting.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to BroadbandBananas for permitting the use of numerous iTV screenshots
in this thesis. Also thanks to a number of other organisations/individuals for
providing visual material, including: Sony; the European Broadcasting Union; Ray
Cordero/Home Theatre Magazine; CEA; Lemac; iTV Marketer; eMarketer; Access Conf
erences; UEC; and TiVo.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT .......................................................................
.........................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................
.....................................................................v TABLE OF
CONTENTS .......................................................................
....................vi LIST OF TABLES...........................................
...........................................................ix
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 Introduction.................................
..............................................................13 Scope .........
................................................................................
..............13 Overview ......................................................
............................................14
CHAPTER 2 DIGITAL TELEVISION 2.1 2.2 Introduction to Television Transmission For
mats .....................................15 Analogue Terrestrial Broadcast Stan
dards ................................................15 2.1.1 Aspect Ratios....
...............................................................................1
6 2.2.2 Bandwidth ..............................................................
.........................16 2.2.3 Interlacing ..................................
.....................................................16 2.3 2.4 2.5 Digital Tele
vision Transmission Standards ...............................................17
DVB, ATSC and ISDB..............................................................
................18 The Viewing Experience of Digital Television ................
..........................21 2.5.1 Improved Imagery ............................
...............................................21 2.5.2 Widescreen Television...
..................................................................21 2.5.3 Sound
. ..............................................................................
..............24 2.5.4 Multiview ...............................................
.........................................25 2.5.5 Closed Captioning ............
...............................................................25 2.5.6 Multi-ch
anneling .......................................................................
......26 2.6 Implications of Multi-channeling...................................
...........................27
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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2.6.1 Viewer Fragmentation .....................................................
................28
CHAPTER 3 HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Defining HDTV .....
................................................................................
...34 American HDTV Standard ...................................................
.....................35 DVB-T HDTV Standard.....................................
.......................................35 HDTV Displays.........................
................................................................39 HDTV Conspira
cy Theories ....................................................................
..43 HDTV Implementation: Choice Versus Quality.................................
........45 3.6.1 HDTV in Europe and the United Kingdom .........................
.............45 3.6.2 HDTV in Australia ........................................
..................................47 3.6.3 Australian Opposition to HDTV .......
...............................................50 3.6.4 United States ..........
.........................................................................52 3.7
3.8 3.9 HDTV Content Creation ..................................................
..........................57 Digital HD ........................................
........................................................58 24P, The New Digital
Film........................................................................59
3.10 HD Acquisition ............................................................
.............................61 3.11 Film versus HD ............................
.............................................................63
CHAPTER 4 INTERACTIVE TELEVISION 4.1 4.2 Defining Interactive Television .......
..........................................................68 ITV Applications...
................................................................................
....70 4.2.1 Information Services...............................................
.........................70 4.2.2 Communication Applications....................
.......................................75 4.2.3 Enhanced TV.....................
..............................................................77 4.2.4 Games ...
................................................................................
..........87 4.2.5 T-Commerce...................................................
.................................89 4.2.6 ITV Advertising.......................
........................................................94 4.3 Personalised TV .
................................................................................
.......98 4.3.1 Electronic Program Guides ......................................
........................98 4.3.2 Personal Video Recorders ......................
..........................................99
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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4.3.3 Video-On-Demand (VOD).....................................................
........104 4.3.4 Internet Television ..........................................
...............................106 4.3.5 Datacasting ...........................
.........................................................107 4.4 Viewing Expecta
tions...........................................................................
...111
CHAPTER 5 CONTENT ACQUISITION 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Reconciling Formats In A Time Of T
ransition.........................................115 Video Acquisition Formats.
.....................................................................115 Analogu
e Video Formats.................................................................
........115 Standard Definition Digital Video ..................................
.........................116 5.4.1 Compression .................................
...............................................118 5.4.2 Sampling Ratios .......
....................................................................119 5.4.3 Bi
t Rate and Date Rates...........................................................
.....120 5.4.4 Digital Formats..................................................
...........................120 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Resolution Wars .............
.........................................................................122 Len
ses ............................................................................
.........................126 The CCD............................................
.....................................................127 Film Acquisition.......
...............................................................................1
27 Future Proof Film ...........................................................
.........................128
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 6.1 Conclusions............................................
.................................................131
REFERENCES .....................................................................
...................................135
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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List of Tables
Table 3.1 Table 3.2 ATSC Table 3 Formats For DTV Transmission Table 3.2 Standard
s Australia AS 4599-1999 Television Formats.
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Figure 2.2 Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2 Figure 3.3 Figure 3.4 Figure 3.5 Fig
ure 3.6 Figure 3.7 Figure 3.8 Figure 3.8b Figure 3.9 Figure 4.1 Figure 4.2 Figur
e 4.3 Figure 4.4 Figure 4.5 Figure 4.6 Figure 4.7 Figure 4.8 Figure 4.9 Figure 4
.10 Figure 4.11 Figure 4.12 Figure 4.13 Figure 4.14 Figure 4.15 Figure 4.16 Figu
re 4.17 Figure 4.18 Figure 4.19 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios Transmission options
within total bandwidth Projector Home Theater System. Marantz PD5010D 50-Inch Pl
asma HD Monitor. Hitachi 43UWX10B 43-Inch HD Monitor. Five fastest growing consu
mer electronic products in the United States. HD studio camera on The Tonight Sh
ow. Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta with matte box and viewfinder extension. Sony HDW-F90
0 CineAlta in camcorder mode. Panasonic AJ-HDC27, 720p HD camera. JVC JY-HD10U M
iniDV Camcorder. Image size area difference between Super 16mm and 35mm film. Au
star iDaily news application. Austar’s iWeather application TPS METEO EXPRESS ap
plication. Elle Cuisine Recipe magazine. Comete horoscope application UK Online
Interactive TV Mail on Liberate platform. SMS TV on Canal Satellite. Note virtua
l keyboard. C Dans L’air, viewers pose questions via SMS. Walking With Beasts. B
BC interactive documentary. Walking With Beasts. BBC interactive documentary. Di
scovery Shark Weekend interactive documentary. Sky News Active. Note voting and
eight video streams. MTV Hits. Viewers can place sticker on screen. BBC Wimbledo
n 2001 BBC World Cup soccer 2002. BBC World Cup 2002 BBC Winter Olympics 2002 F1
Digital+ on Sky. Driver Stats.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.20 Figure 4.21 Figure 4.22 Figure 4.23 Figure 4.24 Figure 4.25 Figure 4
.26 Figure 4.27 Figure 4.28 Figure 4.29 Figure 4.30 Figure 4.30b Figure 4.31 Fig
ure 4.32 Figure 4.33 Figure 4.34 Figure 4.35 Figure 4.36 Figure 4.37 Figure 4.38
Figure 4.39 Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2 Figure 5.3 Figure 5.4
Sky Sports Active. Player Cam. Voting on Sky News. Big Brother 2001 Discovery Ch
annel’s Mastermind. ROFL Interactive consumer quiz show. Banzai Games top Forres
ter Research 2001 BBC Cbeebies game. David Beckham’s Soccer International Challe
nge on Sky Active. Football betting on Sky. ITV Gambling Revenues in Europe. Sou
rce Datamonitor 2001 Sky Bet Vegas – Juicy Jackpot. Pizza Hut Interactive Master
Card iTV trial. Virgin Mobile Interactive survey & competition Pampers iTV forum
for mothers. Panasonic Interactive Advertisement DAL entry point. Panasonic Int
eractive Advertisement DAL structure. UEC VR 800 Personal Video Recorder (PVR) T
iVo Series2 DVR US Video On Demand Revenues. Source: Forrester 2001. Generation
loss of DV and Betacam SP. 1st generation Generation loss of DV and Betacam SP.4
th generation. Generation loss of DV and Betacam SP. 7th generation. Generation
loss of DVCPRO 50, Betacam SP, and Digital Betacam 7th generation.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION – (2 pages)
(of six chapters)
DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, 2003 Jeffrey Bird Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
12
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Today the international broadcasting community is on the verge of a revolution i
n television content creation and transmission, brought about by a range of stun
ning digital technologies. Digital television, High Definition Television, 24p H
igh Definition production, as well as Interactive TV are all technologies that w
ill have far reaching consequences for the television industry, affecting progra
m producers, broadcasting entities, advertisers, electronics manufacturers, as w
ell as television viewers. It is a technological environment complicated by lega
cy issues, competing acquisition and transmission formats, revolutionary new met
hods of content creation and delivery, as well as a whole host of emerging conte
nt consumption structures that threaten the established order of television comm
unication. The situation is further complicated by differing approaches to digit
al television implementation in different parts of the world, with Europe and th
e United States charting their own digital directions, developing their own nich
es of expertise, while also exposing themselves to a range of unique creative an
d commercial risks. Surrounded by rapid technological change, untried business m
odels, and uncertain viewer expectations, countries such as Australia attempt to
navigate their own course in what is fundamentally uncharted territory. It is a
lso an environment that is politically charged, with a range of media interests,
both established and aspiring broadcasters, staking out their territory in the
early days of the digital television landscape. It is within these difficult tec
hnological, commercial, and political parameters that content program creators m
ust now operate creating content for today as well as for tomorrow.
1.2
Scope
While there are a range of existing and emerging digital video applications on o
ther platforms, such as Internet video and DVD package media, the scope of the p
aper is primarily limited to broadcast quality television, including terrestrial
, cable and satellite. DVD, although of broadcast quality, is not a broadcast me
dium, while television content on the Internet is neither broadcast quality, nor
has it been perfected as a mass television delivery format. It is not the inten
tion of the author to delve into the technical intricacies of the cable and sate
llite systems, as they are only included within this paper on the basis that hav
e become surrogate terrestrial broadcasting platforms, especially in the United
States and Europe. Moreover, the focus of the paper is on how the disparate digi
tal television technologies impact on content creation and delivery; discussion
of technology is limited to providing the reader with sufficient information to
follow the overall content of the paper.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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1.3 Overview Chapter Two of the paper will provide readers with a basic understa
nding of both analogue and digital television technology, including a discussion
of aspect ratios, bandwidth, scanning modes and the various competing internati
onal transmission formats. This chapter will also provide the reader with a brie
f overview of the potential features that digital television affords, though lim
ited to standard definition transmission. Chapter Three will build on the knowle
dge gathered in chapter 2, introducing the reader to High Definition Television
broadcasting, detailing its underlying technology, how it differs from standard
definition television, as well as the differing HDTV transmission formats. This
chapter will also investigate the latest developments in HDTV display technology
, the movement to a mass HDTV consumer market, while addressing viewer choice an
d expectation. Further discussion will focus on the opposition to HDTV and its i
mplementation in various broadcasting markets. The chapter will conclude with an
overview the new high definition acquisition formats. Chapter Four will first s
eek to define Interactive Television, before providing a detailed exploration of
the various Interactive Television applications currently in the marketplace. T
his exploration will also seek to evaluate the relative success of these applica
tions, providing an insight into viewer expectations, as well as viable business
models. The chapter will also include a discussion of Australia’s controversial
Datacasting legislation. Chapter Five provides content producers with an overvi
ew of the various film and video acquisitions formats that they are likely to co
nfront during the transition to digital television, highlighting the need to pro
tect content assets from technological obsolescence.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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CHAPTER 2 – DIGITAL TELEVISION – (19 pages)
(of six chapters)
DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, 2003 Jeffrey Bird Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
CHAPTER TWO DIGITAL TELEVISION
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
14
CHAPTER 2: DIGITAL TELEVISION
2.1 Introduction to Television Transmission Formats
International terrestrial broadcasting standards are currently in a state of tra
nsition as many countries begin the painstaking move to digital television broad
casting (DTV). Unfortunately, the opportunity to overcome the transmission incom
patibilities of analogue broadcasting has to a large extent been squandered with
a new set of competing standards. As a consequence, the international televisio
n sector will not only have to reconcile the previous three analogue formats of
PAL, SECAM, and NTSC, but an additional three digital transmission formats. This
state of affairs is further complicated by the necessity of ‘simulcasting’, whi
ch entails the broadcasting of both analogue and digital signals of the same pro
grams, simultaneously. Governments around the world have adopted this approach a
s the safest transition route from analogue to digital, allowing consumers to ma
ke the transition over a period of years, and thus ensuring viewers are not disa
dvantaged in the process. As this transition period is likely to continue over a
number of years, coupled with the fact that most nations have yet to even consi
der the move to DTV, the old analogue transmission formats will remain relevant
for some years to come. Moreover, 50 years of analogue television will live on i
n content archives indefinitely, unless significant expense is incurred to trans
fer this analogue material to digital. For these reasons, and to assist in under
standing DTV, it is necessary to briefly cover the various analogue transmission
formats currently used around the globe.
2.2
Analogue Terrestrial Broadcast Standards
Essentially there are three main terrestrial analogue broadcast formats in the w
orld, all of which are more or less incompatible with one another. While the Eur
opean PAL and SECAM are somewhat compatible – in that they have the same frame r
ate and line structure – the American NTSC has a completely different line/frame
rate structure and is entirely incompatible. The difference in frame rates/line
structure largely has its roots in the very early television sets, which used t
he mains power frequency to sync the field timing reference as each new image wa
s received by the set. This resulted in field frequencies of 60Hz in countries w
ith a 60Hz power frequency cycle (110 volts, 60Hz), and 50Hz in 220/240 volt cou
ntries. The 50Hz and 60Hz field frequencies spawned frame rates of 25 and 30 (29
.97 to be exact) respectively.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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With a video bandwidth of 4.2MHz, the American NTSC (National Televisions System
s Committee) is capable of resolving 525 lines per frame, while the slightly hig
her 5.0 MHz video bandwidth of PAL (Phase Alternating Line) and SECAM (Sequentia
l Couleur Avec Memoire) produces 625 lines per frame. Moreover, apart from the g
reater line resolution of PAL/SECAM, the colour processing characteristics of th
ese two standards out performs NTSC in broadcast situations, resulting in higher
quality images.
2.2.1
Aspect Ratios
However, the three competing formats do have a number of factors in common, the
first of which is a 4:3 picture aspect ratio, or the ratio of the width to the h
eight. In this case, the picture is one unit wider than it is square. This aspec
t ratio was not arbitrarily chosen at the onset of television, but was rather a
deliberate decision to approximately match the aspect ratio of most 35mm theatri
cal films shot in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Once the popularity of television b
egan to erode the economic viability of cinema, film producers began shooting th
eir films in wider, more panoramic aspect ratios in an attempt to attract people
back to cinemas.
2.2.2
Bandwidth
The second characteristic that these standards have in common is an affinity of
bandwidth, and lots of it. A continuous wave signal, analogue terrestrial broadc
ast consumes close to the entire allocated television broadcast bandwidth, which
is usually separated into an equal number of channels. In Australia the televis
ion bandwidth channel is 7 MHz wide, while it is 8 MHz in Europe and 6 MHz in th
e United States. In other words, each television station has only enough bandwid
th to broadcast one analogue signal. Until the advent of digital, there has been
no way around this bandwidth squeeze. Moreover, each of the standards is locked
in; that is, there is only one resolution capable of being transmitted, receive
d and displayed on the set.
2.2.3
Interlacing
The final factor that these analogue standards have in common is that they all e
mploy interlaced scanning. Interlaced scanning is a form of analogue compression
, designed to present the eye with 50/60 frames per second, although each frame
(field) contains only half the information of a full frame. Interlacing works by
scanning every odd line on the screen, followed by every even line in the secon
d scan. Reducing bandwidth, this form of scanning enabled earlier television set
s to adequately display the images as they entered the receiver. However, accord
ing to Dr. William Glenn of the Florida Atlantic University Imaging Systems Labo
ratory, image flicker, especially on larger screens, is a major drawback of inte
rlace scanning, resulting a reduction in perceived picture resolution (qtd in “B
irkmaier”, 1999, part 7).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Progressive scanning is a newer form of scanning that has been adopted by the co
mputer industry, and is now emerging in digital television standards. Instead of
showing half of the image over two fields, progressive scanning displays every
line in one frame, increasing resolution, reducing flicker, but also increasing
bandwidth – which is less of a problem with digital compression systems. Glenn s
tates that “….progressive scan does not have interline flicker, a visible line s
tructure, or line crawl. Consequently, the vertical resolution is limited only b
y the frame sampling structure.” (Ibid.) This has led some to claim that the hig
her line structure interlaced formats, such as 1080i, actually have inferior per
ceived resolution than the lower line structure progressive scanned formats, suc
h as 720p. However, it is important to recognise that 1080i has twice the pixel
resolution of 720p, resulting in greater spatial resolution when the picture is
still or contains little motion. All things being equal, it can be said that a p
rogressive scan image has higher resolution than an interlaced image. However, f
or this to be true, a progressive format would need to support an equal line str
ucture to 1080i, as well as an equal temporal rate of 50/60 frames per second. A
t present, such a bandwidth hungry format is not supported. While the interlace
versus progressive scanning issue is irrelevant for analogue transmission format
s, it becomes important with digital television formats, which include both inte
rlaced and progressive scan modes.
2.3
Digital Television Transmission Standards
The concept of digital television is really a paradigm shift in broadcasting, a
radical departure from the analogue world of acquisition and delivery, where the
entire chain of creation, transmission and reception was completely locked to t
he prevailing broadcast standard, be that PAL, SECAM or NTSC. This meant a fixed
frame rate (25 or 30 frames per second), fixed line resolution (625/525) and fi
xed bandwidth. In short, a robust, but highly inflexible, high bandwidth consumi
ng set of standards. PAL, SECAM and NTSC acquisition and post-production equipme
nt will be replaced by digital standards that are internationally compatible. Wh
ile there are three competing transmission standards for digital television – DV
B, ATSC and ISDB – television program makers will for the first time share a set
of common acquisition and post production digital formats, enabling seamless pr
ogram interchange and consigning the absurd program incompatibility problems of
the analogue systems to history. The flexibility of digital transmission lies in
the fact that its MPEG-2 compression standard is a series of binary digits, tra
nsmitted as a bit stream to television receivers, which in turn convert the comp
ressed digital information to images and sound. Employing MPEG-2 compression all
ows a substantial reduction in bandwidth, achieved by only transmitting the data
necessary to show a change in the picture, while discarding redundant informati
on (DCITA, 2000). While the 7 MHz pipe, or bandwidth spectrum, currently allocat
ed to analogue transmission in Australia can only carry a single standard defini
tion television (SDTV) program, the same 7 MHz spectrum ultilising digital trans
mission is capable of broadcasting “…up to six services using SDTV, or as many a
s ten services with lesser definition formatting.” (Ibid.) What this means is th
at broadcasters are presented with the
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
17
potential to utilise their allocated spectrum in a far more flexible way, either
choosing to broadcast one ultra high resolution picture (HDTV), a number of sta
ndard definition programs simultaneously, datacast, or mixture of all of the abo
ve. The only restriction is that they must not exceed the maximum 7MHz pipe, whi
ch equates to a total data rate of about 20 Mbits per second. Unlike the analogu
e transmission standards, which were of a fixed bandwidth, the data rate of indi
vidual programs within the 20 Mbps pipe will vary according to the nature of the
program. For example, standard definition drama or ‘talking heads’ may utilise
4 to 5 Mbps of data, while fast moving sports may consume as much as 10 Mbps of
data (Ibid.). This would indicate that in this case, the broadcaster must choose
between four drama/talking heads programs, or two fast moving sports programs.
Alternatively, the broadcaster may elect to broadcast two drama programs, one in
HDTV and one in SDTV. Again, it is important to realise that the data rate of e
ach program will depend on the degree to which its pictures change from one fram
e to the next, and the format resolution. Moreover, information, e-commerce appl
ications and web pages may also be ‘datacast’ at 1 to 2 Mbps. MPEG-2’s ability t
o vary the bit rate is not dissimilar to video on the World Wide Web, where stre
aming video can be accessed at a number of different data rates, based on the us
er’s optimum modem speed. Once the broadcaster has decided on how to best utilis
e its bandwidth at any given time, the various MPEG-2 program streams are multip
lexed into one bit stream for transmission on a single frequency, where they are
‘unpacked’ by the television receiver or set-top box. While acquisition and pro
gram creation will now be internationally compatible, broadcast transmission and
television reception will still be incompatible, based on either European DVB,
American ATSC, or the Japanese ISDB.
2.4
DVB, ATSC and ISDB
After extensive testing by the Australian Digital Terrestrial Television Broadca
sting Selection Panel in 1997, the Australian Government accepted its recommenda
tion that the European DVB-T digital transmission standard be adopted for Austra
lian digital broadcasting. DVB is a family of compatible broadcasting standards
dedicated to terrestrial, cable and satellite digital transmissions. It consists
of DVB-T for terrestrial broadcasts, DVB-S for satellite broadcasts, and DVB-C
for cable transmissions (DVB, 1998). Both the European DVB and the American ATSC
use the standard MPEG-2 data container to carry all video, audio and multimedia
data. At the time, the Australian version of DVB-T was slightly different, as i
t supported both the internationally accepted MPEG Audio standard, as well as th
e American Dolby Digital AC-3 surround sound specification. Moreover, the Austra
lian DVB-T specification also supported High Definition Television transmission.
While the DVB and ATSC systems both support a set of common SDTV and HDTV forma
ts, where they purportedly differ is in their signal robustness, which is largel
y a function of the frequency modulation used within each system. DVB employs CO
FDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) modulation, a unique method
for constructing single frequency networks, which essentially permits the transm
ission of
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
18
signals on the same frequency, even if adjacent transmitters are broadcasting th
e same signals. Conversely, the American ATSC system employs 8-VSB modulation, a
system that requires adjacent transmitters to broadcast on another frequency. A
s a consequence, COFDM modulation results in greater frequency efficiency, while
also resisting multipath interference, or ghosting, which is often problematic
for non-single frequency networks. The ability to tolerate multipath transmissio
n is also critical to successful mobile television reception, such as moving car
s, buses and other craft. According to tests conducted by the DVB organisation,
mobile reception has been successfully received at speeds of up to 275 km/h on h
ighways, as well as in moving trams through dense city centres (Ibid.). Accordin
g to the DVB organisation,
“…with 8-VSB (ATSC) the only possible service is fixed reception and recent test
s in the USA have shown that it won’t even replicate the existing NTSC service….
The inability to handle multipath make 8-VSB difficult to use in the portable en
vironment. Fixed portable is a possibility if the correct spot is found where ev
erything works. However, walking portable is not possible. DVB-T on the other ha
nd has already been shown to work in this situation…..DVB-T is already being use
d in Singapore for the delivery of Television to buses.” (DVB, ?)
With wireless mobile television reception a possible gold mine for broadcasters,
given that Internet, cable and satellite technologies face great challenges in
this arena, selecting a transmission standard conducive to mobile reception is o
f paramount importance. Many independent comparative tests have also found the D
VB-T system to be superior. John Crane, the TEN Network Engineer for Digital Dev
elopment, was on the FACTS evaluation panel when the standards were tested in 19
97, he states;
“…When we were testing the American ATSC system against DVB, we found that ATSC
had a better impulse noise rejection but the reflection and multipath rejection
was superior in DVB…..We looked at mobile reception, how it worked in a car igni
tion noise environment, how it worked with ghosts and what formats were availabl
e within it…..Overall it was plain that the choice should be DVB as it was super
ior.” (Crane, 2002).
Even in the United States, many industry experts are calling for the 8-VSB modul
ation to be replaced with COFDM, especially after tests by Sinclair Broadcasting
in Baltimore found that 8-VSB was not only inferior to COFDM, but was even infe
rior to NTSC (Birkmaier, 1999). So why did the ATSC go down the 8-VSB route? Ess
entially because the ATSC system was optimised for HDTV and fixed receivers with
directional outdoor antennas. At the time, little thought was given to the impe
nding wireless world of portable communications and data delivery. While many Am
erican broadcasters would like to expand their services to wireless devices, the
y will find opposition to COFDM in some powerful American component manufacturer
s committed to their own systems. It was these
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
19
large broadcast equipment manufacturers that developed the ATSC standard, a coll
ection of companies known as the digital television Grand Alliance. It is unlike
ly that they, or the US Government, is prepared to concede defeat to the Europea
ns – at stake is a billion dollar digital transmission/receiver manufacturing in
dustry. This is compounded by US Congress suspicions that the US broadcasters de
sire a move to COFDM in order to “…compete with the telecommunications companies
in the lucrative new markets for wireless data services. It is clear that this
is not a franchise that the politicians are going to give to the broadcasters.”
(Birkmaier, 2000) While the US sticks doggedly to their 8-VSB ATSC transmission
standard, DVB-T is quietly becoming the global transmission standard. In the lig
ht of Australia’s comparative test of DVB-T and ATSC, many countries that had co
mmitted, or considered the American standard, conducted their own comparative te
sts to arrive at the same conclusions. The most recent of these is Taiwan, which
switched from ATSC to DVB-T in 2001. Today, only the US, Canada and Korea have
stood by the ATSC standard, while Europe, Australia, South America, South East A
sia, India and China have adopted, or are likely to adopt, the DVB-T (DVB, 2002)
. With these huge markets adopting DVB-T, the enormous economies of scale will s
ee digital receivers, set-top boxes and HDTV receivers in the DVB-T format subst
antially fall in cost once production reaches critical mass. While the Europeans
and Americans battle it out, the Japanese have developed their own system for d
igital television, called ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting). Essen
tially ISDB is a hybrid of both DVB and ATSC, an attempt to incorporate the stre
ngths of both systems. However, while the Japanese format has tested equal to, o
r slightly better than DVB-T, it is unlikely to be adopted outside of Japan, giv
en the lack of economies of scale in producing the necessary transmission/receiv
er equipment.
[Update 5/5/03. As the world’s largest manufacturer of television sets, China ha
s been the focus of an intense lobbying campaign by representatives of both the
ATSC and DVB systems. While China has adopted DVB-S for satellite transmissions,
and is likely to adopt DVB-C for cable, the Americans and Europeans were surpri
sed by the 2001 announcement that China would develop its own independent terres
trial DTV standard. According to the People’s Daily Online, the Chinese DTV terr
estrial standard would borrow heavily from telecommunication schemes to create a
system capable of “….not only standard and high definition TV broadcasting but
also for future data services and even cellular phone applications (People’s Dai
ly, 2003)”. According to the article, the Chinese decision was motivated by conc
erns about current DTV transmission problems, especially 8-VSB modulated ATSC, a
s well as a desire to seize an opportunity to create their own system (Ibid.) Wi
th patent rights and royalties running as high as $20 per television set, China
is not the only country considering developing their own DTV-T standard. Brazil,
Argentina, Chile and India are discussing the prospect of working with China to
develop a ‘nonaligned’ DTV standard, uniquely created for the needs of the deve
loping world. The hitherto superiority of DVB’s mobile performance was recently
challenged by an ATSC mobile demonstration at the NAB 2003 conference. Utilizing
Microsoft’s Windows Media 9 compression technology, it is now possible to broad
cast ATSC to a range of
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
20
mobile devices - televisions, PCs and other mobile devices – and at a bit rate t
wo thirds less than that of MPEG-2. Such a remarkably reduced bit rate would mak
e it possible to transmit HDTV at under 5Mbps and SDTV at under 1.5 Mbps. Window
s Media 9’s IP datacasting of broadcast television can be employed within the MP
EG-2 structures of DTV, including both ATSC and DVB systems, and a number of set
-top box manufacturers have already agreed to support Windows Media 9. A number
of cable TV companies have committed to employing WM9 to deliver video content,
while the technology can also be employed to deliver content via broadband, sate
llite, DVD and other physical media. As evidenced by Windows Media 9, HDTV may n
ot remain bandwidth hungry. ]
2.5
The Viewing Experience of Digital Television
Apart from freeing up valuable frequency spectrum, which can be auctioned off by
governments to provide other services, the move to digital television is mainly
concerned with improving the viewing experience of television, a medium largely
unaltered since the adoption of colour in the early 1970’s. In this section, th
e author will briefly outline some of the features of the digital television vie
wing experience, along with accompanying issues that potentially impact on DTV c
ontent creation.
2.5.1
Improved Imagery
It is important to recognise that digital television is not necessarily High Def
inition television,
in fact, HDTV has only been adopted in the United States, Canada, Australia and
Japan. In Europe, where DTV is the most widespread, HDTV has not been adopted at
all. Therefore, is it correct to view HDTV as a subset of DTV, a set of higher
resolutions that require a commitment from regulators, broadcasters and set manu
facturers before it can be transmitted. As a result, digital television usually
expresses itself in the standard definition mode (SDTV), with a picture quality
equivalent to the 625 (575 active) analogue PAL signal currently broadcast in Au
stralia and Europe. In the United States, it will be commensurate with the 525 (
480 active) lines of the NTSC signal. However, despite possessing the same line
resolution of analogue television, digital SDTV is capable of producing better q
uality images in the television receiver. This is explained by the very nature o
f the digital signal itself. Unlike continuous wave analogue signals, which are
reproduced by the television receiver unfaithfully, suffering from interference,
ghosting and diminishing signal strength, digital signals are either ‘on’ or ‘o
ff’ – either reproducing an exact copy in the receiver, or not producing an imag
e at all. The result is dramatically clearer pictures for television receivers i
n built up areas or uneven terrain. This becomes even more important for mobile
wireless devices.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
21
2.5.2
Widescreen Television
Widescreen television gained its impetus from the cinema, where film-makers in t
he 1950’s abandoned the 4:3 aspect ratio of analogue television in an attempt to
distinguish the cinema from the television. It is widely accepted that a widesc
reen aspect ratio results in a greater field of view, and which, when close to t
he audience, allows the viewer to feel more immersed in the action. The advent o
f digital television was seen as opportunity to spurn the more box like aspect r
atio of the first 50 years of television, for a more cinematic widecreen aspect
ratio. The new internationally accepted aspect ratio for television is 16:9, tra
nslated into a picture width that is 16 units wide for every 9 units high. In ci
nematic terms, 16:9 is called 1.78:1, and with most feature films being shot in
1.85:1, a 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio for DTV is seen as a fairly close match. As
a consequence, most feature films can be broadcast on DTV with minimal cropping
of the original image, which in the traditional 4:3 analogue television picture
could be as much as two thirds of the entire picture.
Figure 2.1: 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios
With a 4:3 analogue aspect ratio, broadcasters and filmmakers have lived with a
painful choice when it came to television transmission of movies. The purest app
roach, common in Europe, and in Australia on SBS, is to ‘letterbox’ the image by
placing black masking at the top and bottom of the screen. However, while this
approach allowed viewers to see the movie in its intended aspect ratio, it sever
ely reduced the image area on the screen, a problem acerbated by small televisio
n screens. The other approach, common in the United States and on Australian com
mercial stations, is to employ a technique known as pan and scan. This method es
sentially zooms in on the movie to display a full 4:3 aspect ratio, resulting in
significant image loss at the sides of the original film. To retain the integri
ty of the story, or even to avoid losing the characters off the screen, decision
s are made about what is the most important part of the screen, and the picture
is panned accordingly. For instance, a character may walk from the left side of
the frame, which is out of shot on the 4:3 aspect ratio, right across the screen
to disappear on the other side. In this case, the picture would be panned as th
e character moved from one side to the other, and while this
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
22
would keep them in shot, it is a less than satisfactory way of maintaining the d
irector’s original cinematic vision. However, while the new 16:9 aspect ratio wi
ll become the standard for program creation and television broadcast the world o
ver, broadcasters will now live with the 4:3 legacy, given that most non-cinema
television programs have been shot and edited in the old 4:3 format. This will n
ecessitate the reverse of the previous problem, requiring broadcasters to either
display 4:3 content in black side bars known as ‘pillarboxes’, or artificially
create a 16:9 image by zooming or stretching the 4:3 image. Obviously, once wide
screen content becomes the rule, any programs shot in 4:3 and broadcast in pilla
rboxes, or stretched, will be less appealing to audiences. It is for this reason
that producers with foresight have for some years shot their 4:3 programs on fi
lm, ensuring that their expensive content would survive in a 16:9 world. With a
wider image area, the move to the 16:9 aspect ratio will impact on production pr
ocesses, in particular equipment, cameras, lighting, sets, editing, captioning,
graphics and even stage movements. On a purely practical level, the wider screen
area may reveal the edges of sets, lighting equipment, microphones and other ca
meras. Sets, floor plans, and deeply ingrained production habits will have to be
adapted to a 16:9 world. And while the widescreen image may be ideal for most s
ports, allowing more of the field to be included within shot, some sports will f
ind 16:9 somewhat awkward, as Randall Paris Dark acknowledges in his paper title
d, ‘Framing for Two Worlds’,
“However, with every advantage there are also limitations. Think tennis. The pri
mary camera position is behind the tennis player, where the 4:3 frame works perf
ectly. The 16:9 frame fights that angle, there is too much air on each side of t
he court from that camera position. Pan and scan from the end camera would be ne
xt to impossible. With a few sports, new camera positions will have to be experi
mented with and we will have to find new and compelling ways of covering sportin
g events.” (qtd in “Birkmaier and Pescatore”, 2000, chapter 4)
However, adapting to the 16:9 aspect ratio is further complicated by need to ens
ure that images also convey meaning on legacy 4:3 ratio televisions. Jane Eakin,
Promotions Producer at the TEN Network explains the dilemma,
“There are two issues that we face almost daily. The first is how to create attr
active widescreen images that have their essential message in the 4:3 ‘centre cu
t’ area. The other is to convert material that is widescreen and hasn’t been sho
t with a ‘protected’ 4:3 area and make it work for both formats.” (Eakin, 2001)
While broadcasters such as the BBC have somewhat avoided this dilemma by broadca
sting in the compromise 14:9 aspect ratio, necessitating only marginal letterbox
ing, American and most Australian broadcasters are reluctant to go down the unpo
pular letterbox path,
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
23
even in 14:9. This has given rise to the doctrine of the ‘4:3 protect mode’, cre
ating content that works in both 4:3 and 16:9. However, this is proving problema
tic. Consider for example the problem posed by edit timing, a critical factor in
many programs where edits are performed as characters enter and leave frames. S
hould an edit take place when the character enters the 16:9 frame, or the 4:3 fr
ame? Cutting on the 16:9 frame will mean 4:3 viewers will not see the character
enter the frame, while cutting on 4:3 will present the character’s entrance too
early for 16:9 viewers. A significant problem for comedic and action timing (Dar
k, qtd in “Birkmaier and Pescatore”, 2000, chapter 4). Similar problems are enco
untered with logos and animated graphics, should they be optimised for 4:3, at r
isk of looking awkward and poorly timed in 16:9? While broadcasters attempt to c
onvince content makers to ‘shoot and protect’ for 4:3, the BBC decision to broad
cast a letterboxed 14:9 seems sensible. Moreover, while all new production in Au
stralia is commissioned in 16:9, and the old 4:3 aspect ratio will die when the
analogue signal is switched off in 2008, it is disturbing that 4:3 is still one
of the available formats within the American DTV standard. Considering that the
US is an important program export market, Australian and European producers will
still have to contend with the 4:3 demon for some time to come. A final word on
16:9 acquisition. Shooting 16:9 can be acquired a number of ways, though some m
ethods should be avoided. 16:9 can be acquired directly through a 16:9 acquisiti
on format, such as film, HDCAM or some of the switchable digital formats. In the
case of the switchable format cameras, it is important to use a camera that pos
sess a 16:9 CCD chip, which simply produces 4:3 by placing pillarboxes on the si
des. The most inappropriate are cameras that ‘fake’ 16:9 by stretching or letter
boxing the 4:3 chip. This results in a diminished line resolution of only 432 ac
tives lines instead of 576 in 625 PAL (Wilt, 2002). The same poor result is reac
hed by soft matting 16:9 on a 4:3 image during post production. Given that full
576 line PAL is unlikely to survive the transition to HDTV, an even more degrade
d version of S-VHS like 432 lines should be avoided. Despite the problems inhere
nt in the transition to widescreen television, both Europe and Australia are pus
hing ahead with 16:9 transmission. The UK, the first country in the world to beg
in DTV, is already completely committed to widescreen, in fact, to the extent th
at it is virtually impossible to purchase a 4:3 television set. The remainder of
Europe is moving to 16:9, though more slowly. In Australia, approximately 50% o
f primetime evening programming is widescreen, as is all new programming, most l
ocal news and sports coverage, along with first run movies. Moreover, sales of w
idescreen television sets are beginning to take off in Australia, with sales inc
reasing 700% from 2001 to 2002, at an average cost of $1600 (DBA, 2002). And des
pite the inclusion of the 4:3 ratio in the American DTV standard, all the other
formats in standard, including HDTV, are 16:9 formats. Therefore, all American c
ontent creation will shift to 16:9 production over the long term.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
24
2.5.3
Sound
Digital television will bring with it dramatically improved audio quality, based
on two internationally recognised audio encoding systems. Initially, the Europe
an DVB system was based on MPEG 1, Layer II (stereo), while the American ATSC sy
stem was based on the more sophisticated surround sound Dolby Digital AC-3. DVB’
s adoption of MPEG 1, Layer II audio was based on its widespread use within radi
o broadcasting, DVD, consumer electronics equipment, multimedia and cable and sa
tellite broadcasting. In short, it is a robust system that has widespread indust
ry and consumer acceptance. However, the Americans, with their focus on the cine
ma quality HDTV experience, pushed the envelope to adopt Dolby Digital 5.1 Surro
und Sound, a system based on cinema quality sound. With surround sound, six sepa
rate channels of audio are decoded by the receiver and sent to six different spe
akers, this includes a Front speaker, Left and Right Front speakers, Left and Ri
ght Rear speakers, and a Subwoofer. Combined with high definition resolution ima
ges, true surround sound makes for a powerful viewing experience. As a consequen
ce of Australia’s embrace of HDTV and Dolby Digital, AC-3 was subsequently accep
ted within the DVB international standard. Australian broadcasters have the choi
ce of broadcasting in MPEG 1, Layer II stereo or Dolby Digital Surround Sound. T
he likely outcome is for broadcasters to transmit movies and other high quality
presentations in surround sound, while transmitting MPEG Audio for other less ci
nematic programs. It should be noted that it is also possible to broadcast surro
und sound within the MPEG specification, known as Dolby ProLogic, however, this
standard has failed to gain widespread acceptance. Essentially broadcasters have
a choice of three audio formats, MPEG stereo, MPEG with Dolby ProLogic surround
sound, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 surround sound.
2.5.4
Multiview
Not to be confused with ‘multi-channeling’, multiview is essentially a number of
different camera angles, multiplexed and broadcast as separate channels within
a given broadcaster’s 7 MHz spectrum. It is sporting events that lend themselves
ideally to this kind of digital broadcasting, allowing the viewer to select dif
ferent camera angles via the remote control, similar to flicking between ordinar
y channels. To view the multiple camera angles within a single screen requires a
receiver with PIP (Picture in Picture) capability. Multiview is destined to be
a popular viewer option, providing that broadcasters are willing to offer the ne
cessary bandwidth required by the additional camera angle channels, although the
re is the possibility of offering secondary camera views at lower than SDTV reso
lutions. Essentially, broadcasters will choose whether to broadcast one HDTV sig
nal of a sporting event, or multiple lower resolution camera angles, or even com
pletely different content on any spare bandwidth. The final question is whether,
beyond the novelty factor, viewers actually want to select their own camera vie
ws, considering that professional directors have performed this function since t
he beginning of television. Moreover, it is entirely possible that audiences may
respond more enthusiastically to single stream HDTV content.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
25
A number of sporting events are already being multiviewed, including the 2001 FA
I 1000 Bathurst, the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
[Crane, 2001).
2.5.5
Closed Captioning
To assist the hearing impaired, closed captioning is the provision of ‘on screen
’ captions or subtitles. According to Australian Government legislation, broadca
sters must, as far as practicable, provide captions for programs transmitted dur
ing primetime hours (6pm – 10:30pm). The same applies for television news and cu
rrent affairs broadcast outside those times. In the UK, the principal commercial
networks are expected to increase captioned programming to 80% by 2004, while t
he US has adopted a gradual phase in of 5 hours a day in 2002, 10 hours in 2003,
15 hours in 2004, and 20 hours in 2006 (DCITA review, 2000). While governments
around the world seek to improve the viewing experience for the hearing impaired
, broadcasters, already buckling under the cost of the digital transition, are s
eeking captioning exemptions. Among others, Prime Television has claimed the cos
t of captioning its nine local news bulletins to be approximately $700,000 in eq
uipment, followed by $800,000 per annum in salary costs (Ibid.). The costs are g
reater for live unscripted programs, such as sporting events. The ABC claims a c
ost of $942 per television hour of stenocaptioning services (Ibid.).
2.5.6
Multi-channeling
Multi-channeling is the broadcasting of more than one separate television progra
m within the 7 MHz transmission spectrum. As a broadcaster has 19.35 Mbps in whi
ch to broadcast ‘data’, it is theoretically possible for one broadcaster to tran
smit four or five entirely separate television programs simultaneously. While th
is type of multi-channeling dominates digital television in the United Kingdom a
nd Europe, and is permitted in the US, although the FCC is leaning heavily on br
oadcasters to provide HDTV, it was expressly forbidden under Australia’s digital
broadcasting legislation until the advent of the Broadcasting Services Amendmen
t (Digital Television and Datacasting) Act 2000 (Broadcasting Services Act, 1992
/2000).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
26
Figure 2.2: Transmission options within total bandwidth
[Update 5/5/03. Note: While the total data rate of digital television in Austral
ia is often defined as 19.35 Mbps (American ATSC bit rate is19.39), the DVB syst
em allows for variations in the total bit rate, a trade off in bit rate versus s
ignal robustness. While the SEVEN Network and SBS are transmitting, or intend to
transmit, at 19.35 Mbps, the NINE and TEN Networks, along with the ABC, have op
ted for a total data rate of 23Mbps. The higher data rate will result in slightl
y reduced signal coverage.]
This amendment allows the national broadcasters, government owned SBS and ABC, t
o multi-channel certain types of programs, while still barring the commercial fr
ee to air (FTA) networks from doing so. The ABC and SBS successfully argued that
multichanneling would assist them in meeting their responsibilities to the Aust
ralian public, as set out in their respective charters. In the case of the much
larger ABC, this included provisions to, “…provide an information stream and a l
earning stream of programming….The information stream could include live coverag
e of events, repeats of current affairs programs, interviews and datacasting. Th
e learning stream could include accredited educational courses and documentaries
of an educational nature.” (qtd in “DCITA Review National Broadcaster”, 1999)
The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA), the body r
epresenting Pay TV, argued that multi-channeling should not be permitted on any
FTA stations, on the grounds that, “Pay TV currently provides a diversity and de
pth of entertainment and information services…..the types of programming which t
he national broadcasters are proposing to offer are already provided by subscrip
tion television.” (Richards, 1999). Closer analysis would suggest that the Pay T
V industry is less concerned
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
27
about actual competition from the national broadcasters, and more concerned abou
t the prospect of future multi-channeling by the commercial FTA’s. Predictably,
the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations (FACTS) argued that
any provision for the national broadcasters to multi-channel should be limited t
o programs that are not provided by the commercial broadcasters, thus reducing c
ompetition (Branigan, 1999). In the end, the final Digital Amendment Bill reflec
ted that viewpoint, allowing the ABC and SBS to multi-channel, but only educatio
nal, regional news and current affairs, children’s programming, as well as arts
and sciences.
2.6
Implications of Multi-channeling
While the current debate in Australia about the merits of multi-channeling is co
uched in terms of ‘viewer choice’ and ‘viewer control’, it is also possible to i
nterpret it as a struggle between choice and fragmentation on one side; quality
and consolidation on the other. Both sides of the equation have their supporters
, usually based on the needs of their own business objectives. It is also a deba
te overshadowed by the issue of broadcast liberalisation, specifically the entry
of a number of new players into Australia’s television broadcasting space. Thes
e include a range of non-television media interests, from leading newspaper publ
ishers, Fairfax and News Limited, to telecommunications and Internet companies,
all of which have demonstrated an interest in securing television broadcast spec
trum. As far as these interests are concerned, multi-channel enabled ‘viewer cho
ice’ can also be seen as a Trojan Horse in dismantling the dominance of Australi
a’s three commercial free to air broadcasters. Interestingly, one of these broad
casters, the SEVEN Network, is now also arguing for multi-channel broadcasting,
presumably on the grounds that multiple sports programming will generate additio
nal revenue.
2.6.1
Viewer Fragmentation
It is here that it is necessary to examine whether the kind of market fragmentat
ion that multi-channeling engenders, constitutes a viable business model for com
mercial broadcasters, as well as their advertisers. Although it may seem contrar
y to its own interests, FACTS has continued to oppose the adoption of multi-chan
neling on the commercial FTA’s, based largely on the viewpoint that it is an unp
roven business model. FACTS made the following salient points,
“The public interest assessment should look to quality of current services as we
ll as quantity of services available. FACTS research has indicated that consumer
s are more interested in better quality services, rather than more services per
se.”
“In assessing the public benefits of providing more services to viewers, it is i
mportant to take into account the effect competing services may have on the qual
ity of existing commercial services. If viewers are drawn to competing news serv
ices,
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
28
for example, this will impact on revenue, and may lead to programming cuts which
will affect the quality and local content of programming.” (Ibid.)
The reference here is not only to the potential appeal of HDTV programming, but
also to the dangers of spreading content too thin, potentially resulting in more
fragmented audiences and diminished advertising revenues. Some advertisers, how
ever, refute the ‘fixed pie’ advertising revenue concept implicit in the FACTS s
tatement, claiming that advertising spending will grow as advertisers find new w
ays to reach targeted consumers. In a submission to the Productivity Commission’
s Broadcasting Inquiry, the Australian Association of National Advertisers argue
d that,
“[A]dvertisers will increasingly get more sophisticated in their targeting. In i
ts crudest sense advertisers try to reach a particular audience and each product
or service differs in relation to the sort of audience that they’re seeking to
reach. … if that audience becomes fragmented … then that will enable advertisers
to be more focused in how they find that audience. (trans., p. 1129)” (Producti
vity Commission, 2000)
The advertising body went on to argue that multi-channeling would enable adverti
sers to access more cost effective ways of reaching their target audience, a pro
position supported by the Productivity Commission. The Commission did indeed acc
ept the notion of fragmentation, but differed in its conclusion,
“Fragmentation will continue to occur regardless of the number of free to air co
mmercial broadcasting services. But allowing commercial free to air television b
roadcasters to multi-channel (as recommended by this report) will allow them to
target audiences better, and to draw some benefit from this fragmentation.” (Ibi
d.)
However, the Commission did concede that the threat of fragmentation was a great
er threat to FTA broadcasters than other media, as they are primarily dependant
on attracting a large, broad audience, stating that, “As other forms of media be
come more effective at targeting specific groups that advertisers wish to reach,
free to air mass broadcasting could be become relatively less effective.” (Ibid
.) This is a curious admission from the Productivity Commission, essentially an
admission that the kind of fragmentation encouraged by multichanneling is in fac
t detrimental to the viability of commercial free to airs. However, in the inter
ests of media deregulation, it is the Commission’s opinion that any risk to the
FTA’s is worth taking. The FTA’s content that better quality pictures translate
into better advertising opportunities for advertisers, an argument that is highl
ighted by the Commission’s own reference to a digital television paper presented
by Balnaves and Varan, in which it was stated,
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
29
“Advertisers, at least on premium accounts, have demonstrated that they are will
ing to pay to insure that their product reflects high production values. This is
not only a result of their need to display the product and brand as clearly as
possible, but is supported by strategic research demonstrating that high product
ion values result in higher recall and purchase intent … Hence there is a strate
gic justification for higher production value despite marginal additional cost.”
(qtd in “Productivity Commission, 2000, p. 191)
This would seem to support the viewpoint of FACTS, that higher production standa
rds, in this case HDTV, will result in larger audiences, and hence better advert
ising reach. While it is evident that FACTS is certainly interested in protectin
g its market position, the author believes that the extreme high cost of operati
ng a television station, along with exorbitant cost of producing high quality co
ntent, does in fact require a certain level of market consolidation. Good progra
mming costs money, and somewhere along the line someone has to pay for it. The r
ecent collapse of ITV Digital in the United Kingdom, due largely to the cost of
supporting premium multi-channel sporting content, is salient example. It should
also be noted that Australia’s FTA broadcasters have proven themselves over fou
r decades, providing the nation with relatively high quality programming, and at
a profit. It remains to be seen whether the collection of aspiring broadcasters
can deliver over the long term, given that their business models are unproved.
This is an issue that affects not only the broadcasting industry, but also Austr
alia’s film and television industry, an industry dependent on a consistent and s
table flow of capital funding. It is for this reason that the Screen Producers o
f Australia Association (SPAA), quite possibly the only neutral observer in this
debate, questioned the viability of the national broadcasters multi-channeling
without extra funding,
“While multi-channeling represents a useful extension to the services offered by
the national broadcasters, it is imperative that the shift to multchanneling is
adequately funded. Without a reasonable commitment to the costs involved in pro
viding additional services, multi-channeling would be able to offer little that
was interesting or be an effective extension of the national broadcaster’s role.
” (Herd, 1999)
Perhaps the most appropriate method of evaluating the impact of multi-channeling
on viewer fragmentation is to examine it in the field, namely the United Kingdo
m and Europe where such a broadcasting environment has been openly fostered. Wit
h a 30% digital television take up rate, the United Kingdom is often cited as pr
oof of the viability of multichanneling (Mori, 2001). However, a rapid take up r
ate does not necessarily translate into a viable business model, as recent finan
cial data indicates. Of the four main multi-channel networks operating in the UK
, one has failed, while the remaining three continue to incur significant losses
. Even British Sky Broadcasting, the largest multi-channel broadcaster with 5.7
million subscribers, in May 2002 announced a quarterly loss of 30.8 million poun
ds, the twelfth in succession (Financial Post, 2002). Moreover, the collapse of
ITV Digital has rocked the foundations of Britain’s digital broadcasting industr
y, to the extent
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
30
that CEO of Channel 4, and former BSkyB director of programming, David Elstein,
recently declared Britain’s digital television “a disaster” and “a license to lo
se money” (Hodgson, 2002), also adding the following comment, “NTL is virtually
broke. Sky has lost 1bn (pounds), ITV Digital has lost 1bn. If this is competiti
on, then please bring back monopoly” (Ibid.). The fallout likely to set back Bri
tain’s roll out of DTV and necessitate a re-evaluation of the business models un
pinning the industry. Across the channel, DTV multi-channeling has also proved p
roblematic, with the failure of Spain’s DTV multi-channel regime prompting the S
panish Government to abandon the conversion to digital. Even Austar, Australia’s
leading digital satellite broadcaster, continues to incur significant losses, i
ncluding a $682 million Australian dollar loss for the year 2001 (Fraser, 2002).
Collectively, these poor results indicate a fundamental flaw in the business mo
dels of multi-channel broadcasting, indicating that content quality is perhaps m
ore important than viewer choice.
[Update 5/5/03. Austar remains in financial trouble; $400 million in debt, its s
hares trading at about 25 cents, down from a high of $9.60 two years ago. In the
U.K., cable company Telewest continues to struggle, recording a 2.2 billion pou
nd loss for 2002, compared with a 1.9 billion pound loss in 2001. Debt now stand
s at 5.3 billion pounds (Daily Mail, 2003). The other embattled pay TV cable com
pany, NTL, also continues to incur significant losses, recording an annual loss
of 1.5 billion pounds in 2002 (Daily Mail, April 2004). BSkyB, with its 6.3 mill
ion subscribers in the UK, seems to have stemmed the string of losses to record
its highest half yearly operating profit of 158 million pounds to December 31st
2002 (Swedlow, Feb, 2003). However, the company carries significant debt, incurr
ed during the upgrade to digital. BSkyB penetration is partly attributable to th
e company’s strategy of giving away millions of 200 Pound digital set top boxes.
The Economist magazine also attributed Sky’s success to obtaining exclusive pre
mium content, such as live premiership football from free to air TV, as well as
effective marketing and sales techniques, in particular, the bundling of premium
channels to extract maximum dollar from the subscriber. As Tony Ball, BSkyB’s C
EO expressed it, “You’ve got to be careful how much money you take off a subscri
ber. The trick is to know just how far to fleece consumers without losing them (
Economist, 2003). After the collapse of ITV Digital, Britain re-launched digital
terrestrial television in October 2002. Called Freeview, it is a free-to-air mu
lti-channel network backed by the BBC, BSkyB and transmission company Castle Cro
wn. While over 1.4 million households are already receiving Freeview, much of th
is early success is attributable to the existence of approximately 1 million for
mer ITV Digital set-top boxes in TV households. It will be interesting to see ho
w many more TV households are prepared to purchase a digital terrestrial set-top
box. In fact, in April 2003, BARB Audience Research indicated that Freeview hou
seholds were only watching the network 20% of the time, while the remaining 80%
of viewing was spent on the UK’s five terrestrial analogue channels (Swedlow, Ap
ril, 2003). However, given that Freeview is barely six months old, even a 20% vi
ewing rate is promising.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
31
A 2001 study on subscriber churn by Nielsen Media indicated that viewers want mo
re than simply extra channels, in fact, in cases where viewers had 100 channels
at their disposal, they only watched about 16 of them (McMahon/Flanagan, 2001).
This suggests that consumers value choice to a certain point, beyond which they
value higher quality content or even interactive services. In January 2003, the
Spanish Government asked electronic manufacturers and broadcasters to work toget
her to resurrect the country’s failed DTT roll-out. The Government plans provide
existing broadcasters with the 14 channels previously assigned to the failed Qu
iero DTT platform, with new digital terrestrial legislation expected soon. Inter
estingly, the Spanish Government has asked broadcasters to offer “specific progr
amming different from that in analogue” (DTV Group, 2003). This would seem to su
ggest that standard multichannel programming is less than appealing to Spanish a
udiences. ]
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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CHAPTER 4 – INTERACTIVE TELEVISION – (48 pages)
(of six chapters)
DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, 2003 Jeffrey Bird Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
CHAPTER FOUR INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
67
CHAPTER 4: INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
4.1 Defining Interactive Television
Interactive Television, or iTV, has come to represent a stunning array of ‘inter
active’ television applications, from program enhancements, t-commerce and messa
ging, to videoon-demand, interactive games and datacasting. It is a technology i
n its infancy, incomplete, lacking in universal standards, and above all, evolvi
ng at an astonishing pace. For these reasons, defining iTV is both cumbersome an
d sometimes contentious. Jerry Whitaker (2001), in his book Interactive Televisi
on Demystified, defined iTV as “…anything that lets a consumer engage in action
with the system using a remote control and keyboard to access new and advanced s
ervices.” (p.1). However, these ‘new and advanced services’ are not defined. Oth
ers have engaged in far more complex definitions, seeking to break it down into
appropriate categories. In The Concept of Interactivity, J.F. Jensen (1999) wrot
e that interactivity is “… a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the u
ser exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication”
(qtd. in “Van Tassel” p. 157). This was further broken down into four forms of
interactivity, including: • • • •
Transmissional interactivity: one-way stream of continuous information. Consulta
tional interactivity: two-way viewer choice, from existing selection. Conversati
onal interactivity: two-way interaction between viewers, i.e. chat. Registration
al interactivity: two-way system that both accepts and responds to viewer input.
Another writer, Richard Cross (2000), adopts a far simpler definition, delineati
ng two main types of iTV: Messaging applications and Interactive applications. T
hese, according to Richard Cross, are themselves separated to produce four main
types of iTV, which are: •
One Way Messaging: viewers receive broadcaster messages in the form of program p
romotions, target advertising promotions, viewer language choice, junk mail and
weather updates. Two Way Messaging: viewers have minimal interaction with broadc
aster, providing answers to simple questions, which are stored locally and trans
mitted to broadcaster whenever the viewer is next online. Includes polling, mark
et research, lotteries, quizzes or prompts for additional information from adver
tisements.
•
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68
•
One Way Interactive: allows for a greater degree of personalisation, without the
need for a constantly open ‘back channel’. Smart card in set-top box presents t
ransmitted content according to user’s profile. Includes personalised informatio
n services, tickers, information about favourite sports and actors, games on set
-top box, and ‘play along’ interactive games, such as broadcast quiz shows. Two
Way Interactive: Full two way online interactivity, requiring a constantly open
back channel, especially for secure transactions. Includes banking, shopping and
surfing the Web.
•
Digital television technologist, Craig Birkmaier (Miller?), invokes the Internet
as an analogy for interactive television, “Interactive television is most easil
y understood as the convergence of Internet-like interactivity and traditional t
elevision programming and delivery technology.” [4] Birkmaier goes on to describ
e remote controlled channel surfing to be the most ‘crude’ form of interactivity
, before turning his attention to a number of often used terms to describe inter
active television. These include such terms as: •
Dual Screen applications: traditional video program content is delivered to tele
vision, while interactive content and back channel is delivered via a PC. After
Teletext, which was one-way messaging, the lack of set-top boxes and a back chan
nel forced many early iTV programs to adopt this approach, an example is the qui
z show, ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, where viewers were able to participate i
n the quiz via a modem on their PC. Of course, this required viewers to have the
ir PC in the same room as their television, and also ran the risk of loosing vie
wer eyeballs away from the main program – and their advertisers. Single Screen I
ntegrated: one-way distribution of program enhancements that are delivered via t
he vertical blanking interval of analogue broadcasts, or as ancillary data strea
ms of digital broadcasts. A set top box enables the viewer to interact with the
content as it is received. Asynchronous Program Enhancements: one-way program re
lated information is delivered to local set-top box storage, where it can be cal
led up from the viewer at any time. Synchronous Program Enhancements: These can
be one-way and two-way program related enhancements that are time specific and m
ust be presented at the appropriate time along with the main content.
•
•
•
These are only a few of the definitions proffered by various authors, however, t
he ever changing complexity and breadth of iTV makes reaching definitive definit
ions somewhat elusive, and perhaps even futile – the permutations are seemingly
endless. Perhaps it therefore more helpful to actually examine the various forms
of iTV currently in the
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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marketplace, and hence gain a better understanding of what the medium is capable
of in a practical sense.
4.2
ITV Applications
Placing the various iTV applications within neat categories is not always possib
le, given that many of the applications have the capacity to cross boundaries an
d are increasingly multi-functional, however the author attempts to locate them
within categories based loosely on their intended objectives.
4.2.1
Information Services
Also known as datacasting, iTV information services are perhaps the most basic o
f the interactive applications; their interactivity, in most instances, only ext
ending as far the viewer’s ability to remotely select and scroll through ‘Web li
ke’ pages. In fact, this kind of iTV has been common in Europe since the late 19
80’s, primarily in the form of Teletext, a stream of text based information tran
smitted in the Vertical Blanking Interval of the analogue broadcast signal. Requ
iring a Teletext compatible TV, or set-top box, this service not only transmits
news, sports, movie and entertainment listings, but also closed captions or subt
itles for the hearing impaired. It is often remarked that Europe’s early embrace
of iTV services is a direct result of the Teletext like services offered there,
in contrast to the United States and Australia, which lacked widespread accepta
nce of the service, and as a result, on Internet based information services. The
advent of digital television will eventually see the phasing out of these analo
gue text based information services, though they will be replicated in the digit
al form, allowing the incorporation of richer graphics. They are predominantly o
ne-way information services, though the provision of ‘back channels’ will increa
singly see them migrate to two-way interactivity. According to OpenTV, an iTV mi
ddleware provider, these information based services lend themselves to sponsorsh
ip and advertising models of revenue raising, especially in conjunction with “re
spected information providers around the world.” (OpenTV, 2002 p. 5) This enable
s broadcasters to provide constantly updated material from news organisations su
ch as CNN, Reuters and AAP.
News An example of this most basic form of iTV is provided by Australia’s first
iTV provider, the rural and regional satellite based Austar. Austar’s iDaily pro
vides news and other information on a simple one-way messaging basis. Using arro
w keys and buttons on the remote, viewers are able to select and scroll through
a number of news headlines covering world and local events, sports, finance and
entertainment. Similar to Web pages, selecting a headline loads another page wit
h the full story, which can then be scrolled through. The author found this to b
e a useful and simple application, though the pages loaded rather
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
70
slowly, and the prospect of reading large amounts of text on an interlaced stand
ard definition monitors unappealing for anything but a cursory exploration of th
e day’s events.
Figure 4.1 Austar iDaily news application.
More sophisticated systems, supported by advanced set-top boxes, are able to acc
ess information services while continuing to watch video programming. In the cas
e of BBC Digital Teletext, the video program stream shrinks to one side of the s
creen, while interactive text based information can be accessed in the remainder
of the screen space.
Weather Weather based services are perhaps the most popular form of one-way inte
ractivity, offering a bewildering array of climatic data, both locally and inter
nationally. Again, Austar iWeather service offers a simple, yet effective approa
ch to disseminating a wide range of weather information, offering the viewer the
ability to scroll and select from statewide forecasts down to local regions. Ot
her options include marine forecasts, snow and surf reports, as well as access t
o localised international weather reports. While iWeather is limited to text and
basic graphics, other services, such as Spain’s TPS Meteo Express includes anim
ated graphics, as well as a 24 hour animated satellite map. As the most popular
iTV application on TPS, the company has apparently been successful in generating
income from sponsorship/advertising incorporated on this application (Broadband
bananas, 2002). This is achieved through the innovative use of full screen adver
tising splash screens, periodically launched as the viewer navigates the site’s
pages. Although this is iTV at its
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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most basic, weather information services are perhaps the most useful to the gene
ral viewer, providing up to date information, quickly and affordably, simply by
switched on the television set. It can be said that this is an application that
is fulfilling a viewer need and is likely to remain popular.
Figure 4.2 Austar’s iWeather application.
Figure 4.3 TPS METEO EXPRESS application.
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Lifestyle and Horoscope Predominantly text and graphic based, lifestyle and horo
scope iTV is also a popular format, allowing one-way interaction on the more bas
ic set-top boxes. As with other one-way based applications, the viewer is not ac
tually interacting with the broadcaster, but interacting with the set-top box, w
hich has stored all the pages necessary for the particular application. The rang
e of lifestyle applications is naturally diverse, from automobiles, gardening, a
nd sports, to cooking, parenting and antiques. Elle Cuisine is a French virtual
magazine that provides food related information, such as recipes, and is a good
example of web content repurposed for iTV.
Figure 4.4 Elle Cuisine Recipe magazine.
Horoscopes are another popular information application, their limited scope well
suited to the spontaneous immediacy of television delivery. In the case of the
Comete Horoscope application, interactivity is again limited to the set-top box,
with the broadcaster offering free content, while seeking to entice the viewer
to pick up the telephone and dial a phone based horoscope, for which they will b
e charged. In circumstances where a back channel is present, usually a dial up m
odem in the set-top box, the prospect of directly charging the viewer for access
to content is seen by broadcasters as a means to generate revenue. This form of
revenue generation has become particularly prevalent on UK iTV sites, where vie
wers run the risk of accumulating substantial costs. The UK Claire Petulengro Ho
roscope site allows the viewer to access a one day horoscope free of charge, aft
er which all other content is charged at an exorbitant 25 Pence per minute. Give
n the emotional power and immediacy of television, the author predicts that thes
e type of pay sites will eventually eclipse similar telephone based services.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.5 Comete horoscope application.
Government and Local Information Information based iTV applications are also sui
ted to a whole host of local and government services, such as local traffic cond
itions, cinema and restaurant listings, school information, local events as well
as official government information. At the forefront is a UK Government initiat
ive to make all of its services available via the Web and interactive TV by 2005
. The first stage commenced in April 2002, when some of the information services
already available on the Web were re-purposed and launched on a dedicated iTV c
hannel accessible through the Sky Active satellite service (Swedlow 2002, Issue
4.41 April 18). The service includes all sorts of government related information
, from upcoming sporting events, to crime prevention, parenting tips and a searc
hable directory of public internet access points. The intention is to migrate al
l Government information services to the iTV platform, and hence help to overcom
e the digital divide for those without computers and internet connections. Inter
estingly, despite being a government service, users will be charged for access t
o this service via their set-top box modem, incurring timed local call charges,
as well as a 1p per minute fee.
Figure 4.6 UK Online Interactive
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4.2.2
Communication Applications
Communication iTV applications allow viewers to send and receive communications
between each other, to broadcasters, as well as specialist services. Naturally,
these kind of communications require a back channel from the set-top box, as wel
l as the facility to input text based data via either a remote control or an inf
ra-red keyboard. It is important to note that a constantly open back channel is
not always required, unless the viewer continues to send and receive data. In mo
st instances, the viewer will be charged a fee every time they go online and sen
d data via the back channel.
Email and Short Message Service The most obvious form of iTV communication is th
e facility to send and receive emails, granting people without computers a cost
effective entry into Internet enabled communication. However, current email appl
ications do not support attachments. Similar applications also support SMS text
messaging, allowing viewers to also send instant text messages to mobile phones.
Both services have been popular in the UK. While entering text via an infra-red
keyboard is user friendly, some iTV networks do not support that facility, inst
ead requiring the user to tediously enter text characters via their remote contr
ol, or in some cases via a remotely controlled ‘virtual keyboard’. In most insta
nces, T-Mail applications are not free, incurring both access fees as well as se
t-up costs. T-Mail on Australian Austar requires the purchase of an Interactive
Services Kit for $99, a $5 per month T-Mail subscription fee, as well connection
charges every time the user sends or receives messages (Austar 2002).
Figure 4.7 TV Mail on Liberate platform.
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Figure 4.8 SMS TV on Canal Satellite. Note virtual keyboard.
Chat UK broadcasters are finding that chat applications, when related to program
ming, create both viewer ‘stickiness’ as well as an additional revenue stream. C
hat applications allow viewers to communicate with each other in synchronicity w
ith television programs, a popular function during sporting events. In May 2002,
the UK’s Sky Sports Active offered viewers a live chat functionality prior to b
roadcasts of FA Cup and Scottish Cup soccer finals. One hour prior to the games,
viewers are able to access the chat application by pressing the red button on t
heir remotes, and then selecting ‘Chat’ from the menu, launching a chat interfac
e with a quarter screen video. The viewer’s set-top box modem then dials up the
back channel providing the necessary two-way communication, which is charged by
the broadcaster at 5 pence per minute (Swedlow 2002, Issue 4.45 May 1). At 5 Pen
ce per minute, roughly 14 Australian cents, participation in this one hour chat
program would see the viewer rack up a charge of at least $8 - $9 Australian dol
lars. A viewer that engaged in this form of interactivity often would be faced w
ith back channel bills in the hundreds of dollars every month. With back channel
charges for other iTV services even higher than Sky’s chat service, it is not s
urprising that the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Tel
ephone Information Services, the UK regulatory body responsible for monitoring p
remium rate telephone services, reported in April 2002 that more than 25% of com
plaints it received from the public derived from excessive iTV back channel char
ges (Swedlow 2002, Issue 4.45 April 21).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.9 C Dans L’air, viewers pose questions via SMS.
On a more positive note, chatting applications also allow viewers to directly pa
rticipate in television programs, either by chatting directly with television pr
esenters, or by sending in questions for those appearing to answer. During the 2
002 soccer World Cup, BBCi will offer viewers the opportunity to chat with prese
nters and commentators after each of the fifty-six matches being broadcast. Othe
r services, such as France’s daily program C Dans L’air utilise SMS messaging as
viewers pose questions to interviewees.
4.2.3
Enhanced TV
Often, when people are referring to interactive television, they are actually ta
lking about Enhanced Television, also known as Synchronised Television. In most
cases, Enhanced TV does not require a back channel, and as such is a one-way int
eractive. Enhanced TV offers additional program related information, such as mul
tiple video streams, text based supporting information, manipulation of sound an
d images, as well as the ability to play along with quiz shows. In the case of o
ne-way enhancements, viewers are simply interacting with the content broadcast t
o the set-top box, which decodes the mixed signal from the broadcaster, enabling
local interaction. Increasingly, systems supported by advanced set-top boxes an
d a back channel are pushing the limits of Enhanced TV to also offer online voti
ng, quizzes and competitions.
One-Way Enhanced TV While the distinction between one-way and two-way enhancemen
ts is continuing to blur, many programs predominantly fall into the traditional
one-way enhanced TV definition, these range from documentaries, TV specials, chi
ldren’s programs, and especially sport.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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In the case of documentary, the interactive functionality once only offered via
DVD technology, is currently being experimented with in the United Kingdom, with
the BBC’s Walking With Beasts Interactive an important step in that direction.
Broadcast on the Sky digital network, Walking With Beasts offered four different
synchronous video streams, each dealing with a specific angle of the program, a
long with the ability to select different narrations based on the viewer’s level
of specialised interest in the topic. Viewers therefore have the ability to wat
ch the program in a linear fashion, along with the optional use of factoids, pop
up information boxes offering additional facts, or digress from the main progra
m to watch video covering more in depth aspects of the program, such as the maki
ng of the show, as well as expert interviews. Navigation is via the four standar
d colour buttons on the viewer remote: red, green, yellow, and blue. As the vari
ous applications of the interactive are broadcast synchronously, the viewer will
have to choose which aspect of the program to watch, consequently missing other
segments, including the main presentation. To overcome this problem, each episo
de of the program was broadcast in a continuous loop for a week, affording viewe
rs the opportunity to watch the program again, exploring previously unseen mater
ial. A recent press release described the totality of the interactivity offered
to the viewer:
“In total, the interactive version of Walking With Beasts provides four hours of
additional video content, three hours of alternative commentary and 700 complem
entary text boxes. The program makers interviewed over 50 of the world’s top pal
eontologists in eight different countries, and consulted over 400 leading expert
s in mammalian evolution to compile the additional information” (ABC 2002)
According to the BBC (ABC 2002), over 2.1 million of the 9 million Sky digital s
atellite viewers tuned into Walking With Beasts when it was broadcast in the UK
last November. In July 2002, Australia’s ABC will broadcast the program through
the Austar digital satellite system, as well as the Optus cable iTV service. Que
stions have been raised about the suitability of the public broadcasters transmi
tting via commercial pay services such as Sky in the UK, and Austar/Optus in Aus
tralia, however, given the lack of free-to-air digital receivers and set-top box
es in the home, there is little other option at this stage.
[Update 5/5/03. After the screening of Walking With Beasts ABC New Media reporte
d that a follow up survey indicated that 98% (presumably the 300,000 Austar view
ers) of viewers wished to see more iTV enabled documentaries. The ABC’s second i
nteractive documentary followed in December 2002, titled, Long Way to the Top –
Live in Concert. This program offered viewers different camera angles, backstage
interviews and archival footage (Swedlow, Nov, 2002). Another study by ABC New
Media indicated that 81% of iTV Long Way to the Top viewers were positive about
the interactive options offered.]
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.10 Walking With Beasts. BBC interactive documentary. Select desired nar
ration.
Figure 4.11 Walking With Beasts. BBC interactive documentary. Press yellow butto
n to watch alternative video.
Other programs are also experimenting with iTV enhancements, such as Discovery C
hannel’s Shark Weekend, which allows the viewer to call up additional supporting
information, while the main video stream shrinks to a portion of the screen. Th
is is an approach expanded upon by Sky News Active, which now supports eight sim
ultaneous video streams on one screen, with each stream selectable, leading to q
uarter screen video and text information. Other programs allow the viewer to int
eract with both the audio and
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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picture displayed on their screen, a function particularly popular with kids. MT
V Hits Interactive on Sky Digital allows the viewer to stamp pre-determined ‘sti
ckers” on top of the video stream, while Austar’s Nickelodeon children’s channel
allows viewers to “ZAP” the screen by pressing the remote’s green button – this
results in the picture bouncing all over the screen. Other forms of interactivi
ty elicit special effect sounds from the television.
Figure 4.12 Discovery Shark Weekend interactive documentary.
Figure 4.13 Sky News Active. Note voting and eight video streams.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.14 MTV Hits. Viewers can place sticker on screen.
Interactive Sports Interactive sports programming has been one of the most succe
ssful iTV applications in the United Kingdom, with the BBC’s Digital Media & Bro
adband Solutions department citing some impressive figures for the year 2001. Du
ring Wimbledon 2001, a 2 week period, the BBC’s interactive service was accessed
4 million times on the Sky platform, almost half of all subscribers. Moreover t
he Open Golf Tournament Interactive received over 1.3 million hits during the fo
ur days of play (Mecklenburgh 2001). Sports programming is therefore proving to
be a key driver digital television, offering viewers scores, player profiles, st
atistics, competitions, and multiple video streams. The widely acclaimed Wimbled
on 2001 iTV coverage enabled digital Sky viewers to select from five different g
ames, simultaneously played, broadcast and featured on a single menu screen. Usi
ng the Up and Down keys on the remote, each particular game could be highlighted
, switching the audio commentary and offering the viewer the option of enlarging
that particular game to full screen video. Match scores and results from previo
us games could also be accessed, shrinking the full screen image a smaller porti
on of the screen. The BBC’s coverage of the 2001 Open Golf employed a similar te
chnique, offering multi-view video stream through a single screen interface.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.15 BBC Wimbledon 2001
Figure 4.16 BBC World Cup soccer 2002.
Figure 4.17 BBC World Cup 2002 Figure 4.18 BBC Winter Olympics 2002
Moreover, the BBC recently announced plans to offer multi-screen coverage of the
upcoming 2002 World Cup, as well as the Commonwealth Games, using the above tec
hnique to broadcast four of the eight games that clash during the tournament. Th
e BBC also plans to do this across all digital platforms, including satellite, t
errestrial and cable. However, this is contingent upon government approval. Othe
r applications to be offered to 2002 World Cup viewers include: a channel devote
d to the English team, replete with player profiles, statistics, news, match rep
lays, press conferences and highlights; viewer chat with BBC presenters (back ch
annel required); as well as the usual assortment of alternative audio tracks, hi
ghlights, replays and statistics made available during games (Swedlow 2002, Issu
e 4.45 April 12). Not all viewers will be able to access all of these services,
as some terrestrial and cable viewers do not posses advanced set-top boxes. A si
milar 2002 World Cup coverage will be provided by Latin America’s satellite syst
em, DirecTV LA, offering switchable cameras, multiple audio feeds, background in
formation, statistics, as well as a vote for the most valuable player (requires
back channel) (Swedlow 2002, Issue 4.45 April 29).
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Figure 4.19 F1 Digital+ on Sky. Driver Stats.
Figure 4.20 Sky Sports Active. Player Cam.
Two-Way Enhanced TV Increasingly, the above one-way TV enhancements are being su
pplemented with viewer feedback via a back channel, resulting in limited two-way
enhanced interactivity. In most instances, although the viewer is providing fee
dback, initially this interaction is with the set-top box, where the viewer inpu
t is accumulated and sent via the dial up back channel to the broadcaster at the
appropriate time.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Some of the most common uses of this type of interactivity are viewer voting app
lications, which have featured on many European iTV programs. Sky News Active of
fers viewers a daily vote on a leading news related issue, and according to Sky,
this has resulted in over 2 million votes since voting began in March 2001 (Bro
adbandbananas 2002). At 25 Pence per vote, this simple application has generated
over 500,000 Pounds. Similarly, Channel Four’s Big Brother 2001 interactive gen
erated over 200,000 Pounds in voting revenue, facilitated by a daily polling que
stion concerning the behaviour of the contestants (Mecklenburgh 2001). In 2002,
Big Brother is slated to offer even greater enhancements, including house evicti
on voting, more opinion polls, viewer mobile phone text messages presented as on
screen tickers, quizzes, as well as the ability to place bets on Big Brother co
ntestants. This is in addition to the one way program enhancements, such as 24 h
our live video feeds from the house, video highlights, as well as the capacity t
o view 4 video feeds on one screen (Swedlow 2002, Issue 4.50 May 27).
Figure 4.21 Voting on Sky News.
Figure 4.22 Big Brother 2001
Interactive quiz shows seem to be leading the charge in two-way program interact
ive television, a genre of programming ideally suited to viewer participation vi
a simple remote control interaction. There are a large number of programs offeri
ng a quiz format, but perhaps the most obvious one is Discovery Mastermind, a sy
nchronised interactive quiz that allows the viewer to answer questions just befo
re the contestant answers. During the program, the viewer is not actually intera
cting with the broadcaster, but instead with their set-top box, which records th
e viewer’s answers and calculates a final score. It is at this final stage that
the viewer is encouraged to submit their personal score to the show via a dial u
p back channel, which is charged as a premium rate call. A similar application w
ill be used in 2002 for the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire interactive, allowing
viewers to participate in the game and submit their scores to a ‘viewers league
table’, with the top four viewers invited onto the show in person to participate
in a ‘viewers final’ (BBC 2001).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.23 Discovery Channel’s Mastermind.
Other interactive quiz shows offer viewers the chance to participate and win pri
zes, with Denmark’s interactive ROFL quiz show perhaps the most sophisticated to
date. Aimed at a 10-14 year old audience, ROFL is a consumer infotainment show
that has capitalised on the younger generation’s familiarity with interactive me
dia structures, attracting a loyal following among that group. The program goes
beyond the simple question and answer style quiz, requiring the viewer to immers
e themselves in the content, exploring additional video feeds and information so
urces to find the correct answers. Unlike other quiz shows, which seem to have a
ttached interactivity as an after thought, ROFL was created as an interactive pr
ogram (Agency.com 2001). According to Visionik, the company responsible for the
interactive content creation, “Viewers of ROFL have four main interactive functi
ons at their disposal during the live broadcast; participation in a quiz, choosi
ng between different video streams, selecting additional information about topic
s raised in the show and participation in surveys and polls.” (Visionik 2001).
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Figure 4.24 ROFL Interactive consumer quiz show.
Another creative use of quiz style programming tailored to the strengths of iTV
is E4’s Japanese style betting show, Banzai. Directed at the 18 to 34 age group,
Banzai is a funky comedy interactive that invites viewers to use their remote c
ontrol to place ‘bets’ on the outcome of absurd scenarios, such as Grandmother W
heel Chair Chicken, or the amount of time it takes before an interviewee deserts
a silent interviewer. The viewer accumulates a score from a number of such game
s, with the option of submitting the score via the back channel to win prizes -
the broadcaster generates revenue through premium rate modem connections.
Figure 4.25 Banzai
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4.2.4
Games
According to research by Forrester, games are currently the most popular applica
tion on interactive television, supporting over three million played games per d
ay (Forrester 2001). The BBC recently reported that UK satellite and cable compa
nies generated over 4 million pounds on iTV game applications. While slow to tak
e off, a study by Datamonitor predicts that games will be the ‘killer app’ of iT
V, generating over $2.7 billion by 2006. The study also predicts that iTV compan
ies will derive 90% of their revenue from subscription and pay-to-play games, re
sulting in a gradual move away from free iTV games services (Mecklenburgh 2001).
Figure 4.26 Games top Forrester Research 2001
ITV game applications include a whole range of genres, from basic games such as
solitude and checkers, to action games, as well as games of skill and co-ordinat
ion. A method of reducing customer ‘churn’ in the UK digital pay TV market, game
s were initially offered to digital subscribers free of charge, along with the o
ption of advertiser sponsorship. The BBC’s CBeebies Bob the Builder is an exampl
e of free gaming offered to children on the Sky platform, essentially a one-way
set-top box game with no back channel. Using the four colors on the remote, the
viewer has to build a tractor by match the coloured pieces on the screen.
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Figure 4.27 BBC Cbeebies game.
However, the existence of back channels, and the promising popularity of iTV gam
ing, has encouraged broadcasters to experiment with other revenue raising models
, including payper-play, subscription, and premium rate telephone charges. In th
e latter instance, viewers are offered free games in the hope that they will lod
ge their scores via the back channel at premium telephone rates. Other games, su
ch as David Beckham’s Soccer International Challenge, function on a pay-per-play
basis, requiring an open back channel and 50p per game. While Austar has a rang
e of free games, it also offers its viewers a subscription games service, LudiTV
, featuring five new games each month for a fee of $5AUD per household. The comp
any also has plans to introduce pay-per-play games in the latter half of 2002 (q
td in “ITV Marketer”).
[Update 5/5/03. Playjam, an interactive games network in Europe, is rolling out
multiplayer games on the OpenTV platform, allowing viewers to compete against ea
ch other. The first games will be Multiplayer Darts, Football, and Poker. In 200
2, a prototype of Multiplayer Darts received a record number of plays, and follo
w up research revealed that 67% of DTV homes were interested in multiplayer game
s. Interestingly, the games will be cross platform, allowing gamers to interact
not only on TV, but also via mobile devices, including PDAs, mobile phones, PCs
and Pocket PCs. Viewers will be able to send ‘invitations to play’ via SMS, with
the company betting on greater ‘stickiness’ than traditional one-way interactio
ns (BroadbandBananas, Mar 2003). Playjam has also secured French rights to the f
amous game Tetris, which has so far attracted 6.5 million games played in the UK
market, costing 50 pence per play, and generating $3.5 million in revenue (Broa
dbandBananas, April, 2003). Moreover, BSkyB’s Gamestar portal attracted 7.7 mill
ion paid for games in a six month period in 2002.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Popular iTV game, Banzai will continue for a third season, however, this time ‘b
etting’ will be offered on a pay-per-play basis, and viewers will lose their sco
res if they leave the application during commercial breaks. French iTV games com
pany Visiware has teamed up with PVR/set-top box manufacturer Sagem, to create a
n iTV tennis game that employs the PVR’s hard drive to enhance the game’s pictur
e and sound. The application includes complex graphics, video sequences, animati
on and sound effects.]
Figure 4.28 David Beckham’s Soccer International Challenge on Sky Active.
4.2.5
T-Commerce
T-Commerce is broadly defined as the purchasing of goods and services over the m
edium of television. For some time now, t-commerce has been seen as the holy gra
il of iTV, a direct line to the pockets of million of television viewers the wor
ld over. The promise has been encouraged by a wide range of research, highlighti
ng the fact that U.S households watch more than 50 hours of TV per week, that 41
million US households will actively use iTV applications by 2005, and that 46%
of US consumers are interested in t-commerce (Online ITV Dictionary 2002). Howev
er, despite the shinning predictions and high hopes of potential iTV traders, tc
ommerce has yet to fulfil anywhere near its promise, and more recent research in
to t-
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
89
commerce suggests that it may never do so. A GartnerG2 study found that 94% of i
nteractive customers had not made a single iTV purchase, with 35% claiming that
they were not interested, and a further 40% unable to understand t-commerce appl
ications. Of the 6% that did use the service, the average spend was less than $2
5US, predominantly pizzas or inexpensive program related merchandise (qtd in “Ca
rton”). And the empirical evidence on the ground is even less encouraging, with
the UK’s Sky OpenTV t-commerce platform generating only half a million transacti
ons, from a total subscriber pool of 3.5 million viewers (ITV Marketer 2002). As
a consequence of this poor performance, along with the substantial costs involv
ed in preparing content and t-commerce infrastructure, the first two UK retailer
s to embrace t-commerce (Woolworths and Argos) announced in January 2002 that th
ey were discontinuing their t-commerce venture. However, a recent announcement f
rom the world’s biggest TV grocery store, Britain’s ASDA, seems to fly in the fa
ce of industry sentiment. With the roll-out of its Sky Active home shopping comp
leted in May 2002, ASDA will offer viewers the opportunity to buy over 11,000 pr
oducts via digital television, simply by pressing the red button on their remote
s, which will then enable consumers to select and add products to a shopping bas
ket. The company expects to reach 14 million UK households by the end of 2002 (B
roadbandbananas 2002). Drawing conclusions from the above data is fraught with d
anger, given that both iTV and T-commerce applications are exceedingly new techn
ologies, and over the long run may in fact prove phenomenally successful. Howeve
r, as a technology in its infancy, the current evidence seems to suggest that t-
commerce services should initially concentrate on products and services that are
commensurate with the visual and emotional power of television. This would incl
ude iTV betting applications, currently generating over 55 million pounds per ye
ar on Sky, over half the company’s revenue from all iTV services, as well as 61
million Euro for France’s state owned gaming authority, the PMU (Mecklenburgh 20
01). Programming related purchases, such as fast food, CD’s, DVDs, merchandising
paraphernalia and special offers are also potentially successful emotional buyi
ng triggers. Banking is another probable application, as banks have the unique a
bility to close physical outlets, thereby forcing customers onto electronic serv
ices.
[Update 5/5/03. In February 2003, BSkyB reported that iTV betting had increased
160%, and iTV betting revenues 104%. The profit margin on iTV betting is 11%. In
conjunction with Sky’s games portal, and other voting applications, iTV betting
delivered an IARPU (interactive revenue per user) of 15 pounds, an increase of
16%. CanalSatellite also reports strong 2002 iTV betting figures: 70 million Eur
os wagered (Swedlow, Feb, 2003). Gaming and iTV betting applications seem to be
proliferating in the iTV space, with stiff competition motivating Sky to recentl
y launch Sky Bet Vegas, a service channel consisting of three games – Juicy Jack
pot, Top Spin and Super Keno. However, concern is growing about the social impac
t of iTV gambling, prompting Sky to enter discussions with a UK charity dedicate
d to “responsible attitudes to gambling”. Possible ‘remedies’ include ageverific
ation systems, information on gambling addiction, as well as gambling support li
nes (Swedlow, Nov, 2002). It would be interesting to see how well iTV would perf
orm without gambling in the mix.]
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.29 Football betting on Sky.
Figure 4.30 ITV Gambling Revenues in Europe. Source Datamonitor 2001
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.30b Sky Bet Vegas – Juicy Jackpot.
One of the first, and most popular, t-commerce applications is Britain’s Domino’
s Pizza on the Sky platform, enabling viewers to push the red button on their re
mote, which in turn directs them to a dedicated Domino’s Pizza site. The viewer
is then able to navigate through the pizza order interactive, utlising the four
colour keys to select, view and pay for the purchase. To conclude the transactio
n, the viewer checks the order, enters their credit card details and pushes the
blue button to end the session. The process is simple and effective, and is the
kind of t-commerce application that taps into the emotional purchasing power of
television, so much so that 8% of Domino’s Pizza’s revenue comes from iTV (Broad
bandbananas 2002). As an interesting aside, Domino Pizza reports that iTV orders
are 35% greater in value than telephone orders, and that its iTV orders are thr
ee times that of web orders (Chippendale & Leach 2001). During 2001, a similar p
izza application was piloted in Orange, New South Wales, offering viewers the op
portunity to buy fast food from Pizza Hut. More sophisticated than Domino’s, the
Pizza Hut interactive allowed the viewer to continue watching the television pr
ogram in the top right hand corner of the screen while conducting the transactio
n. The viewer could also switch to full screen video at the touch of a button. T
his particular system relieved the viewer from entering their personal details,
as each set-top box is already registered to a name and address, requiring the v
iewer to input their PIN number only. This same interactive was adapted for othe
r products and services, however the performance of general commerce transaction
s has to date been less than enthusiastic.
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Figure 4.31 Pizza Hut Interactive
[Update 5/5/03. Companies are beginning to focus on greater commercialisation of
smart card technology in European set-top boxes. It is believed that 90% of Eur
ope’s set-top boxes are compatible, and possible uses include prepayment for goo
ds/services, personal details, audience measurement, competitions, coupons and e
ven TV frequent flier miles.]
Figure 4.32 MasterCard iTV trial.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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4.2.6
ITV Advertising
A close cousin of t-commerce is interactive television advertising, or iTV adver
tising. ITV advertising is essentially a standard television commercial, overlai
d with interactive options that allow the viewer to access additional product in
formation, request additional information, provide feedback to the advertiser, m
ake an impulse purchase, or participate in competitions, votes and quizzes. User
profiles and household account information held by the broadcaster also make it
possible for advertisers to target different households with different products
, and even different languages. In a market facing increasing fragmentation, wit
h viewers in many countries able to access hundreds of channels, many broadcaste
rs and advertisers see iTV advertising as a means of reaching viewers in a more
targeted and value added way. This represents a major paradigm shift in televisi
on advertising, which traditionally has been a mass audience ‘pull’ medium, tran
smitted in the hope that buyer awareness of the advertised product would lead to
increased business. ITV advertising, on the other hand, taps into the ‘push’ pa
radigm, aggressively pursuing an individual or group likely to be interested in
a certain type of product, though in a marketplace populated by channel surfers,
there is an added twist – advertisers must persuade viewers to engage through i
nteractivity, enticing information, games, quizzes or competitions. Today, it se
ems as if the viewer expects to be compensated for their time. At present, the v
iewer entry point into interactive advertising falls into two categories; the ‘T
Spot’ and the ‘Overlay Trigger’. A TSpot is essentially a banner ad, similar to
those on the Internet, that is placed on non-video interactive content, such as
electronic program guides and iTV information pages. ‘Clicking’ on the Tspot, by
pressing a coloured button on the remote, directs the viewer to what is called
a Dedicated Advertising Location (DAL), a ‘walled garden’ space provided by the
broadcaster that allows the viewer to explore multiple pages and interact with t
he particular product featured on the TSpot. It is here that the advertiser and
viewer go beyond the typical 30 second television ad and develop a more intimate
relationship – or so the advertiser hopes. The viewer will be encouraged to int
eract through feedback or competitions, make a purchase, or order some additiona
l information. The second viewer entry point is somewhat more sophisticated, emp
loying an overlay trigger, which appears on screen at the appropriate time, sign
aling to the viewer that the Red button on their remote will lead them to additi
onal information about the product. The overlay trigger also leads to the DAL, w
hich could also be interpreted as essentially a web site with video functionalit
y and a back channel that identifies the viewer.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.35 Panasonic Dedicated Advertiser Location – Entry points.
Figure 4.36 Panasonic Dedicated Advertiser Location – Structure.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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The Panasonic Icon vacuum cleaner iTV advertising application featured below is
an example of a strategy that employed both entry points, both facilitated by th
e opportunity to win a year’s free cleaning. The diagram features the two entry
points, as well as the interactive flow of the DAL itself, providing the viewer
with four choices: a competition; order a brochure; view product information; as
well as the opportunity to purchase the product. Research commissioned by Panas
onic in the aftermath of the campaign revealed some impressive results: • • • •
• • Sales up by 300% 29,000 viewers accessed the DAL Viewers remained on the sit
e for an average 3 minutes and 30 seconds 93% of those accessing the DAL entered
the competition Competition delivered 73% of those accessing DAL 63% of researc
h respondents demonstrated brand and product recall (Panasonic 2001).
Other iTV experiments have also sustained encouraging responses, including a Vir
gin Mobile Phone iTV ad on Sky in 2001. This cleaver ad, activated via overlay t
riggers, as well as TSpots, enticed the viewer to enter the DAL to have a ‘moan’
about their mobile phone service, also affording them the chance to win a new m
obile phone. Viewers were asked to answer three questions, the first about what
they disliked about their phone service, the second asking if they wanted a broc
hure, and lastly, their age. As opposed to a 30 second television commercial, wh
ich basically only appeals to ‘pull’ brand marketing, this iTV advertisement acc
omplished that and more. Virgin pushed their brand even harder to an interested
audience, gained some useful consumer data, determined the age of the viewer, an
d also offered to mail a brochure. Later research revealed a ‘click through’ rat
e of 1.6% of all viewers, which translated into 18,512 overlay ads and 4,791 ban
ners (Chippendale & Leach 2001). Wink Communications, a leading iTV content plat
form in the United States, reports that the overall “take rate” for iTV advertis
ing offers is an astonishing 38-45%, with free coupons generating the most “take
s” at 42-63%, with brochures at 32-40% (Wink 2001). Australian Austar also repor
ts some success with iTV ads, including a Toyota LandCruiser campaign that gener
ated around $1million in sales (Austar 2002). According to research by WorldGate
, another iTV platform company in the U.S., 37% of consumers would like to acces
s information via iTV ads, a claim ostensibly supported by a iTV ad trial that c
ompany conducted with AT&T in Iowa, which resulted a click through rate in acces
s of 75% (Hoffman 2001). The BBC also recorded a significant success in 2001 wit
h its Children in Need Campaign, allowing viewers to respond to the fundraising
advertisement by clicking through to make a donation via their remote controls,
resulting in 28,500 donations totaling 473,000 Pounds. On the strength of this,
a similar campaign was launched on Sky in May 2002 by the British Red Cross (Swe
dlow Issue 4.46 May 5).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.33 Virgin Mobile Interactive survey & competition
However, despite the promising initial response to interactive advertising there
are significant barriers to its widespread adoption. While advertisers may like
the idea of viewers departing programs to interact with them further, program m
akers and broadcasters recognise that this kind of interaction interrupts the pr
ogram flow, both the particular program they are watching, as well as any progra
m that follows. Even the advertisers themselves are concerned about program flow
, as viewers clicking through someone else’s DAL will miss some ads entirely. On
e advertiser’s 3 minute click through, is another’s complete loss. To partially
counter this concern, some iTV ad applications allow the viewer to continue watc
hing the program, either in a small window, or full screen with the basic advert
isement interaction presented as an overlay. Watching the program in a small win
dow may prove be both unrewarding as well as confusing, while application overla
ys are only suitable for the most basic of interactions, such as ordering a broc
hure. Other advertisers are taking a completely different approach, employing pr
oduct placement within content, or brand association with iTV applications that
users are willing to interact with, such as games. The Pampers iTV advertisement
takes product placement one step further, offering viewers with young children
iTV content with no obvious advertiser affiliation, in this case information abo
ut infant development. Blurring the distinction between advertising and content,
this iTV ‘ad’ offered mothers a baby forum, including video, text, email newsle
tter, as well as the opportunity to seed in feedback and pictures of their babie
s. In this instance, the advertisers were satisfied to transmit a ‘branded exper
ience’. It is important to note that this advertisement did not interfere with p
rogram flow, as it was accessible via a text based information menu, and for all
intents and purposes is a datacasting application.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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Figure 4.34 Pampers iTV forum for mothers.
In true iTV advertising applications, it remains to be seen how the program flow
dilemma will resolve itself. The author believes that iTV ad applications carry
with them the inherent danger of too much interactivity, resulting in a web lik
e experience, an experience less than satisfying for both entertainment purposes
, as well as advertising. This is not a danger at present, given the low level o
f iTV ads, but in the future the prospect of viewers clicking through multiple a
pplications will change the medium of television forever. Advertisers will then
find themselves with a market resembling the fragmentation of the Internet; broa
dcasters will be unable to deliver a large consolidated audience and content mak
ers will not be able to secure the investment to produce worthwhile programming.
Moreover, beyond the novelty value, there is no guarantee that viewers will con
tinue to interact with iTV commercials.
4.3
Personalised TV
The great nirvana of television is often characterised as Personalised TV, also
referred to as ‘time shifting’, and Custom TV. Personalised TV is a form of ‘int
eractivity’ that goes beyond the broadcaster controlled experience of television
, allowing the viewer to determine what and when they consume content, forever c
hanging the traditional broadcaster/viewer relationship, with far reaching conse
quences. Personalised TV is at the cutting edge of television technology, with c
ompanies from disparate backgrounds in IT, broadcasting and interactive televisi
on currently locked in a desperate battle to stake out territory in a world of t
elevision potentially predicated on consumer choice. At present, there are three
main applications critical to the success of such a revolution in television co
nsumption, they include, Electronic Program Guides; Personal Video Recorders; an
d Video On Demand.
4.3.1
Electronic Programs Guides
At their most basic, Electronic Program Guides, or EPGs, are essentially electro
nic on screen program guides, similar to a print based TV listings guide, where
viewers are able to scroll through program listings containing program informati
on and transmission times. Common to cable and satellite companies, these early
version EPGs were carried on
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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dedicated channels, and with the exception of the ability to scroll through a lo
ng list of programs, offered the viewer no interactivity or enhanced services. H
owever, these basic listings have been replaced by increasingly sophisticated in
teractive EPGs, enabled by settop boxes to offer a number of significant enhance
ments. EPG functionality is dependent upon the degree of sophistication of the b
roadcaster platform, as well as the consumers settop box. Basic EPG interactivit
y includes: • • • • •
The ability to call up a program guide via the remote, and scroll through progra
m listings, both past and future. Display channel number, program title and dura
tion during channel changes or via the remote. Textual information on any progra
m in the program listing, accessed via remote. Ability to switch programs by cli
cking a program in the listing. The is done immediately for a program currently
playing, and delayed for programs scheduled to play at a future time/date (Thoma
s 2001). The inclusion of graphics.
More advanced EPG interactivity includes: • • • • • •
Supported by program metadata, the ability to search for programming by title, t
ime, genre, actor, and time, both current and scheduled broadcasts. Order and pa
yment of Video on Demand programs Internet browsing, chat and email applications
. Build user profiles, alerting viewers to upcoming favourite programs. Access r
estrictions for children. The ability to select programs for future recording –
recording, requires special PVR hardware.
In a television viewing environment characterised by channel proliferation, with
broadcasters such as BSkyB in the UK offering subscribers over 200 channels, in
teractive EPGs become a vital component of viewer program navigation. In fact, w
ith even more fragmentation and choice on the way with impending digital technol
ogies, interactive EPGs are quickly becoming the gateways to the world of televi
sion, games, information, Tcommerce and communication. Their searchable metadata
systems have also made on demand television a distinct possibility.
4.3.2
Personal Video Recorders
Essentially digital set-top computers with advanced software and large hard driv
es, Personal Video Recorders, or PVRs, represent the beginning of the convergenc
e of computers and television. These units work in conjunction with EPGs to allo
w viewers to
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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digitally record transmitted television programs, which are saved on the hard dr
ive and either played back directly with a momentary delay, or played back at a
later time at the viewers convenience. As digital storage devices, PVRs enable r
andom access style functions, including the ability to pause off-air material, e
xecute instant replays, skip forward and back through programming, as well as th
e ability to skip commercials entirely. The device also allows viewers to watch
one program while recording another. It is in program selection that PVRs inters
ect with electronic program guides, dependent on detailed program metadata to su
ccessfully search and record desired programs.
Figure 4.37 UEC VR 800 Personal Video Recorder (PVR)
Figure 4.38 TiVo Series2 DVR (PVR)
Three major companies have entered the PVR fray, the current leader, TiVo, Repla
yTV, now owned by SonicBlue, as well as Microsoft with its UltimateTV system. Ca
pable of recording up to 320 hours of video, the ReplayTV and TiVo systems in th
e Unites States require customers to first purchase the device, costing anywhere
from $599US for a 30 hour version, up to $2000US for 320 hour capacity, and the
n pay a monthly subscription of $10 to $20 (Grotticelli 2001). The subscription
fee covers the updating of EPGs, which are downloaded during down time via the P
VRs modem, as well as other promotional material that is presented to the viewer
, often based on user profiles. Microsoft’s UltimateTV system works in conjuncti
on with American satellite broadcaster DirecTV, providing satellite reception by
feeding the digital signal through the PVR. In the United Kingdom, the Sky netw
ork recently introduced TiVo PVRs, available to viewers prepared to purchase the
devices and pay a premium pay TV subscription rate.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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The bigger picture envisaged by companies such as TiVo and ReplayTV extended bey
ond the ability to search and record upcoming programs offered by local televisi
on providers, to eventually include a truly global system of content on demand,
accessible via vast metadata databases and video servers. While the ability to c
all up any episode of a favourite television program is alluring, PVR technology
has run into fierce resistance from content owners, privacy concerns from consu
mers, and sheer terror by television broadcasters and advertisers. Not to mentio
n viewer confusion as to the functionality of PVR technology. In the latter case
, confusion among US consumers, a market that has had PVRs for two years, has se
en mediocre sales of only 500,000 PVR devices (Ibid.). These lackluster sales re
sulted in SonicBlue taking over ReplayTV and incorporating its technology in its
own devices, while Microsoft recently eliminated its UltimateTV iTV division, a
fter struggling to gain a foot hold (ISP News 2002). Consumers in the UK have al
so had a less than satisfactory PVR experience, with angry reports emanating abo
ut broadcasters invading their privacy and taking liberties with their property.
In May 2002, viewers singled out the BBC for the harshest criticism, after this
public broadcaster secretly recorded an episode of the new BBC sitcom Dossa and
Joe onto viewer’s PVRs – without their permission. Viewers were further incense
d when they discovered that they could not erase the recording for at least a we
ek. Far from recoiling from the outcry, both the BBC and TiVo defended their act
ions, and signaled that more ‘sponsored’ automatic recordings were on the way. I
t is certainly curious that a public broadcaster such as the BBC is engaging in
such maverick programming tactics. While many dread the introduction of ‘spam te
levision’, companies such as TiVo are boldly pushing ahead with this business mo
del. A week later, TiVo did another sponsorship deal, this time in the U.S., aut
omatically recording advertisements for a Sheryl Crow album, along with two ads
for electronics retailer Best Buy (Smith 2002). This raises the privacy issue; w
hile consumers own their PVRs, companies such as TiVo have free access to their
operating systems, enabling forced recordings, data collection, software upgrade
s and functionalities. In fact, countries such as the Unites States have no legi
slation to prevent this kind of data collection and forced advertising. The much
hyped promise of viewer control is beginning to look decidedly at risk. This is
compounded by recent revelations that PVR software has the capacity to block th
e viewer from making certain recordings, should the broadcaster wish to do so. H
owever, it is not only consumers that are questioning this brave new world of te
levision, content producers, broadcasters and advertisers are concerned that all
owing viewers to make digital recordings not only encourages piracy, but will un
dermine established business model of television, brought about by viewers utlis
ing the technology to skip commercials. Gravely alarmed by the threat that PVRs
pose to the established order of film and television distribution, the major Ame
rican television networks, along with the Hollywood studios are at this moment e
mbroiled in a legal battle with ReplayTV owner, SonicBlue, charging the company
with copyright infringement for allowing users to illegally record programs, ski
p commercials and swap programs with other PVR viewers. Many in the industry see
the outcome this legal action as having far reaching consequences for all conce
rned, including consumers. The author returns to point made in Chapter 2 about m
ulti-channeling and viable business models, specifically that somewhere along th
e
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line someone has to be willing to pay for quality content, otherwise there will
be no content. With the television industry already facing crippling fragmentati
on due to multichanneling and the proliferation of channels, the advertisement s
kipping, piracy enabling PVR technology may in fact push it over the edge. On th
e piracy front, iTV message boards reveal that some PVR viewers are already buyi
ng additional disk drives to swap and generally treat as VCR like recording form
ats. It is also worth noting here that other convergence technologies are also w
aiting in the wings, in particular, video game systems such as Sony PlayStation2
, Microsoft X-Box and Nintendo’s recently released GameCube. At present these ga
me consoles lack TV tuner cards to receive TV signals, as well as hard drives to
record content. However, with broadband technologies expanding rapidly, and the
cost of TV tuner cards under $200, it is entirely probable that these functions
will be added at a later date (Fischetti 2001). Already Sony is offering a plug
-in adapter to access the Internet, including narrowband video streaming via Rea
lNetworks software, as well as a 40-GB hard drive and wireless keyboard/mouse fo
r navigating the Web.
[Update 5/5/03. While the press continues to rave about TiVo, predicting the dem
ise of commercial television, the actual take up of TiVo continues to flounder a
t a combined UK/US subscription of 624,000 users, or .05% of total US TV homes.
The company recorded a loss of approximately $55 million in 2002, in addition to
pulling out of the UK market in early 2003. With increasing DVR competition on
the horizon, TiVo is moving away from subscription services to focus on licensin
g its technology to manufacturers of consumer electronics, such as Sony and Tosh
iba. Expect to see DVR functionality incorporated in a range of products, includ
ing DVD players, cable/satellite set-top boxes, TVs, PCs and mobile devices. Con
sumer electronic companies are also considering linking household devices via re
movable DVR style hard drives. Both Sony and Microsoft have started adding DVR f
unctionality to their software/PCs. Pioneer and Zenith are releasing DVD-DVR rec
orders in 2003. Cable operators and satellite companies are rolling out their ow
n DVR capability. EchoStar currently commands 45% of the US DVR market, while Co
x Communications recently released a combination cable set-top box/DVR, costing
subscribers $9.95 a month. In Japan, DoCoMo’s mobile phone subscribers can progr
am their DVRs from I-mode phones. InStat/MDR predicts that global DVR shipments
to increase from 1.5 million in 2002, to over 11 million in 2005 (qtd in Lieberm
an, 2003). In November 2002, Scientific-Atlanta polled 300 cable customers about
their use of DVR technology, the results indicating that DVRs translate into mo
re time spent watching television. 52% watched more TV with their DVRs; 43% watc
hed a greater range of channels; 66% of users recorded one program while they wa
tched another (Brown, 2003). Forrester Research predicts that 16% of US househol
ds will have a DVR by 2005, while BSkyB expects that 20% of its subscribers will
have a DVR by 2007 (Economist, Jan 2003). While DVR users report high satisfact
ion with the technology, customer satisfaction has failed to result in mass mark
et appeal, although, as the predictions indicate, DVR adoption is likely to grow
. Analysts have noted a number of obstacles to greater DVR penetration, includin
g monthly subscription fees, consumer confusion, lack of consumer education, pri
vacy concerns, as well as high prices.
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While SonicBlue’s ReplayTV has promoted its ad skipping functionality to consume
rs, TiVo has not emphasised its 30 second advance function, and thus, has avoide
d a clash with content owners. The advance button function is activated by enter
ing a five button code, although it is an undocumented feature. However, broadca
sters and advertisers remain deeply concerned about the threat that DVRs represe
nt to the financial viability of commercial television. These sentiments seem to
be supported by a recent CNW Marketing Research report, which indicated that 72
% of PVR users skip commercials (Gibson, 2002). This prompted Jamie Kellner of t
he Association of National Advertisers to comment, “…the television business can
not exist, unless consumers are willing to give time for marketers (qtd in “Gibs
on” 2002). TiVo, and DVR supporters in general, have argued that advertisers mus
t learn to reach viewers in more engaging ways, such as adding interactivity to
commercials, forced DVR downloading of dedicated advertising campaigns, as well
as embedding advertising in programming. In February 2003, TiVo entered into a d
eal with 20th Century Fox to download ‘showcase’ info-commercials, featuring fil
m trailers, interviews with stars, ‘the making of’ footage, as well as film rela
ted music/soundtracks. These info commercials are downloaded automatically to th
e hidden partitioned section of the DVR’s hard drive late at night. A similar de
al was made with Best Buy in 2002, which allows viewers to leave the programming
to interact with a Best Buy commercial, generally product and catalogue informa
tion, which is stored on the hard drive. While such measures are likely to be ap
pealing to viewers in some circumstances, such as movie trailers, it is perhaps
a little unrealistic to expect them to willingly view less disguised advertising
, especially beyond the novelty stage. Moreover, the prospect of embedding even
more advertising in existing programming is likely to negatively impact on the q
uality of television content, blurring the distinction between content and adver
tising to such an extent that many viewers will be tempted to switch off, or see
k commercial free subscription/package media entertainment. Despite reassurances
that consumer viewing information will not be used without viewer authorisation
, concerns still linger about DVR privacy. In August 2002, Nielsen Media Researc
h teamed up with TiVo to track viewer DVR usage, made possible by the forced dow
nloading of tracking software to all TiVo DVRs. While all the DVRs have the trac
king software on their hard drives, Nielsen insists that data will only be colle
cted from households that have agreed to participate. A number of companies have
announced plans to introduce high definition TV DVRs in 2003, with Zenith alrea
dy unveiling an 80 GB HDTV DVR, capable of recording up to eight hours of HDTV c
ontent, in March 2003. Estimated retail cost is $999US. TiVo’s original rival, S
onicBlue’s ReplayTV, went bankrupt in March 2003 - $335 million in debt. As a co
nsequence of ReplayTV’s 30 second commercial skipping button and file sharing ca
pacity, the company suffered heavy losses in a two year legal battle with twenty
odd media companies seeking to remove these features. However, the company’s pr
oblems didn’t end there, as ReplayTV suffered from low consumer demand, penetrat
ing only 5% of the DVR market.]
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4.3.3
Video On Demand (VOD)
Cable and satellite broadcast companies are attempting to meet the PVR threat he
ad-on, by offering viewers more choice through Video On Demand services, or Near
Video on Demand Services (NVOD). NVOD has been a feature of American cable and
satellite services for some time, a system whereby broadcasters dedicate a numbe
r of channels to one program, usually a movie, which is transmitted at different
intervals, affording the viewer a greater range of viewing times. A similar ter
m is Pay-Per-View (PPV), however modern NVOD systems actually send these multipl
e channels from a video server, which is then buffered in the viewer’s sent-top
box and presented on the screen. With both PPV and NVOD systems, viewers must st
ill wait anywhere from 10 minutes up to two hours for a movie feature to start,
depending how many channels have been dedicated to the program. VOD on the other
hand, is true video on demand, allowing the viewer to search and select from a
large menu or EPG of programs offered by a service provider, instantly download
the program to the viewer’s PVR hard drive, where they are able to watch the mov
ie at their leisure. All of the above systems require a back channel for orderin
g and payment, although in more primitive systems the back channel is simple a v
oice telephone call to the service provider. Advanced NVOD and VOD video servers
are actually integrated computer systems, as Joan Van Tassel writes:
“From a hardware standpoint, a media server is actually a special-purpose comput
er…A customer order comes into the media server; the server locates the desired
information in storage, retrieves it, and sends it downstream to the viewer. It
then sends a message to the billing software to charge the customer.” (Van Tasse
l 2001, p. 290)
Cable and satellite companies in the United States are convinced that VOD is goi
ng to be the ‘killer app’ of digital television, a view in part supported by con
sumer research indicating that up to 55% of all cable consumers are interested i
n VOD (Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing, 2001). Given that abo
ut 80% of American viewers access television via cable or satellite systems, thi
s represents a substantial portion of the market. Moreover, cable companies have
invested $50 billion in upgrading their systems for two-way digital traffic, wh
ile satellite companies such as DirecTV and EchoStar are rolling out PVR enabled
VOD services. Forrester research predicts that US VOD revenues will rise from 0
.66 billion in 2002 to over 6.8 billion dollars by 2006. By 2010, 67.7 million U
S homes will be capable of accessing VOD content (Forrester 2001). In the UK, Ka
gan World Media research indicates that 42.8% of all UK households will be VOD e
nabled by 2006 (Kagan World Media 2001).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
104
Figure 4.39 US Video On Demand Revenues. Source: Forrester 2001.
With the threat of media fragmentation bearing down on the content delivery sect
or, and the significant costs involved in providing VOD infrastructure – recentl
y claimed to be at least $700US per customer (Online ITV Dictionary 2002) – cabl
e and satellite companies will be eager to generate VOD revenues, reduce custome
r churn, and extract the maximum dollar from the subscribers it already has. How
ever, despite the promising consumer surveys, Jupiter Research indicates that by
2006, only 22% of VOD enabled households in the United States will actually mak
e use of the service – an ominous warning to the sector that the number of house
holds capable of receiving VOD should not be confused with the number that will
actually pay to use the service (Jupiter 2001). Other participants are also drag
ging their feet, specially content producers, free to air broadcasters, as well
as advertisers. Again the PVR capabilities inherent in the VOD model have concer
ned the major Hollywood studios, fearing that digitally downloaded movies files
will pirated, while the major American television networks believe that VOD will
dilute their market and undermine their adverting base. The following quote by
an anonymous cable execute highlights the real sentiments of the free to air tel
evision networks, when it comes to negotiating deals to offer their programs on
cable VOD platforms:
“When cable operators say VOD is a great brand extension for a network, it’s mos
tly BS. Most of them hate it, but we are working with out affiliates and thought
fully approaching ways for all of us to make money.” (Larson 2002)
Networks and advertisers are also deeply concerned that VOD commercial skipping
functions will also destroy the business model of television production and dist
ribution;
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
105
they also cite concerns about the lack of audience-measurement systems, making i
t difficult to sell program space to advertisers. However, despite these signifi
cant obstacles, the major American networks are keeping their options open, cond
ucting a number of experiments with VOD with their cable platform affiliates. NB
C plans to offer VOD versions of the Today Show and The NBC Nightly News to Phil
adelphia’s Comcast customers, while ESPN and A&E are packaging a number of their
specialist programming strands into various VOD offerings (Ibid.).
[Update 5/5/03. VOD equipment supplier, SeaChange, has created new software capa
ble of offering ‘DVDs on demand’. VODLink makes it possible for viewers to have
DVDs, complete with their original user interfaces and interactive features, sen
t to their set-top box. This innovative approach to interactive television and v
ideo on demand taps into the popularity of DVDs with consumers, as well as openi
ng up the interactive television production process to DVD content producers.]
4.3.4
Internet Television
While it is outside the scope of a paper on broadcast quality television, the em
ergence of VOD has also raised the promise of Internet delivered television, and
consequently needs to be briefly addressed. The often hyped convergence of the
Internet and television faces a range of significant challenges, which eventuall
y may be overcome, but for the time being will limit video on the public Interne
t to sub-broadcast standards. In a proprietary report about media servers, Steve
Rose made the following salient point:
“ ….the entire Internet ran successfully for years on a backbone of 45 Mb/second
for the entire United States (and much of the rest of the world). Video-on-dema
nd for a small town of 10,000 customers, assuming 20% online (2,000 simultaneous
digital compressed video streams), requires a throughput of 8 Gb/second, or abo
ut 200 times the Internet backbone for much of its life!” (qtd in “Van Tassel” p
. 290)
The problem of Internet scalability was highlighted by the release of the Star W
ars Episode One movie trailer, which reportably brought the entire Internet to i
ts knees as millions of people attempted to download it. This goes to the very h
eart of the problem with the Internet; it is a point-to-point network, deliverin
g content in a two-way one-to-one fashion. Each individual viewer requires a ind
ividual stream or copy of the desired program, meaning that one million viewers
equates to one million individual streams. At some point the Internet infrastruc
ture reaches its limits. A work around for this problem is a concept known as mu
lti-casting, whereby video is sent to servers closer to the end users and served
‘live’ by the Internet Service Provider. Viewers are required to tune into the
multicast at the specific time of the multicast, which for all intents and purpo
ses is not Video-on-demand (Van Tassel p. 150). This is a problem that is compou
nded by the fact that the Internet is a ‘best efforts’ network, meaning that the
video content must travel a complex path through
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
106
multiple interconnected computer networks, all of which process data at differin
g rates, increasing the likelihood of dropped packets in times of high demand (W
hitaker p. 222) While the carrying capacity of the Internet backbone is being co
ntinually upgraded to meet the challenge of a broadband world, the ‘last mile’ i
nto the home still represents a significant obstacle to full screen broadcast qu
ality television. In his book, e-Video, an optimistic view of the Internet’s cap
acity to carry television, Peter Alesso notes that in 1999, only 1.6 million hom
es had broadband connections, while a whopping 48 million made do with narrowban
d 56K dialup connections. By 2006, those with broadband connections would increa
se to 65 million, while dialup connections would be twice that at 135 million co
nnections (Alesso 2000, p. 23). What’s more, these broadband figures include cab
le connections, which presumably would deliver television utlitising MPEG-2, or
dedicated IP Video. Taking this into consideration, the number of users potentia
lly accessing television via the Internet would be in the order of 25 million in
2006. The even poorer broadband penetration rates in the rest of the world, suc
h as Australia, makes the concept of IP delivered television a long way off inde
ed. It is also worth noting that broadband does not necessarily mean high enough
data rates for television, in fact most definitions of broadband do not support
sufficient data rates for broadcast quality television. Peter Alesso classifies
broadband as data rates of at least 1.5Mbps, while others go even lower with ra
tes of 300K, and still others, such as telecommunication companies, cite anythin
g over 56K as broadband connections. Contrast this with the 4Mbps – 6Mbps data r
ate of digital standard definition television. While even Alesso’s 1.5Mbps broad
band rate would fall short of digital television’s data rate, the concept of del
ivering television at 128K or 300K is out of the question. And what of High Defi
nition Television, with a data rate of between 15Mbps and 20Mbps? Even Alesso ad
mits that the delivery of HDTV over the Internet will require end to end fibre o
ptical systems, that is, fibre into the home. At $20,000US per mile to install,
that could be decades away (Ibid.). Some of the above problems are being overcom
e with better compression technologies and the deployment of satellite/Internet
hybrid systems, where the IP data travels via satellite to local head end video
servers or ISPs, bypassing the public Internet labyrinth, resulting in better da
ta delivery performance. However, while Internet video is an interesting experim
ent, digital broadcast television systems, including terrestrial, satellite and
cable, are proven networks capable of delivering high quality video in a reliabl
e fashion to anyone within their transmission footprints. In the case of satelli
te systems, this is a reach of potentially billions of viewers. At an unreliable
1.5Mbps (or much less), the Internet is simply no match for the highly reliable
, 20Mbps digital broadcast systems of terrestrial, satellite and cable.
4.3.5
Datacasting
Datacasting, a word featured prominently in Australia’s digital television legis
lation, is somewhat difficult to define, as it refers to concepts increasingly c
utting across content application categories. However, there appears to be two m
ain elements of datacasting, that
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
107
being the kind of iTV applications already discussed, in addition to services th
at could be termed data broadcasting. According to Whitaker, the television indu
stry has defined the two major categories of datacasting as: •
•
Enhanced television – data content related to and synchronised with the video pr
ogram content. For example, a viewer watching a home improvement program might b
e able to push a button on the remote control to find out more information about
the product being used or where to buy it. Data broadcast – data services not r
elated to the program content. An example would be current traffic conditions, s
tock market activity, or even subscription services…. (Whitaker 2001 DTV Handboo
k, p. 57)
The latter definition of data broadcasting can be expanded to include another fo
rm of datacasting, one that the author considers ‘true’ datacasting, that being
the transmission of “….facsimile data, e-mail, voice mail, pagers, database upda
tes for personal digital assistants or software downloads, including Web pages o
r IP transport generally” (Miles & Sakai 2001). This raises the prospect of broa
dcasters utilising a portion of their 20Mbps spectrum to enter the business of w
ireless data transmission, utilising their wide area footprint and massive bandw
idth speed to reach any number of non-TV programming devices, including desktop
and hand-held computers. Instead of downloading software to each specific comput
er, companies would be able to pay broadcasters to update employee or client com
puter software via DTV datacasting. Other uses may include music downloads or ev
en the ability to updated advertising displays in public spaces. While these kin
d of datacasting services are being experimented with in the United States and E
urope, the Australian focus has been on enhanced television and information serv
ice forms of datacasting, most of which are yet to be rolled out by broadcasters
. In fact, the Australian legislation defines datacasting rather broadly as “…a
service that delivers content in the form of text, data, speech, music or sounds
or visual images (or in any form or combination of forms) to persons with appro
priate reception equipment, when the delivery of the service uses the broadcasti
ng services bands.” (Department of Communications Information Technology and Art
s 1999). However, while the Australia’s datacasting legislation is liberal by de
finition, it is currently quite restrictive in terms of the services that broadc
asters or datacasters are able to offer. Essentially, the Australian Government
has passed legislation that effectively prohibits datacasters from becoming ‘bac
k door broadcasters’, by restricting services to:
“…information programs where the sole or dominant purpose is to provide informat
ion on products, services and activities; interactive home shopping; banking and
bill paying; internet web sites (other than ones designed to carry TV programs)
; electronic mail; education services; interactive games, and; Parliamentary bro
adcasts.” (Ibid.)
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
108
The legislation also ensures that datacasters do not offer television like progr
amming, achieved by disallowing the broadcasting of television news, drama, spor
ts, documentary, lifestyle, entertainment or radio programming, though they are
allowed to broadcast 10 minute extracts of such programming. Moreover, this prog
ramming must not be linked together, but must be selected from a menu by viewers
(Ibid.). The intent of this legislation was to inhibit datacasters from becomin
g de facto broadcasters before 2006, the date set for the possibly entry of new
commercial television broadcasters. Given the considerable cost of the digital t
ransition to current broadcasters, it was successfully argued that they should n
ot face any new competition until after this date. Similarly, the legislation wa
s also designed to stop current commercial broadcasters from using their digital
spectrum for multi-channeling, which is to be reviewed in 2005. However, in res
ponse to the datacasting restrictions, the Government has come under considerabl
e attack from the same group of ‘anti-HDTV’ opponents, in particular the Fairfax
and News Limited newspaper media companies, along with the telecommunications a
nd Internet industries. As a consequence, Telstra, News Corp, Fairfax and The Ag
e withdrew from the 2001 Datacasting license auction, forcing the Government to
abandon the auction, with the intention of reviewing the legislation. It is impo
rtant to note that this is not simply a battle between old and new media interes
ts, but between the television and non-television media industries. Australia’s
cross media laws prohibit media companies owning both television and print media
in a particular market, in the interest of maintaining media diversity of opini
on. While the commercial FTA are excluded from entering the newspaper market, th
e print based Fairfax and News Limited are arguing that they should be able to e
nter the datacasting sector without restrictions, a proposition that is clearly
a drive to enter the television business by stealth. In this climate of position
ing, it is not surprising that the newspaper sector has resorted to such a one-s
ided approach to its reporting of Australia’s digital television and datacasting
legislation. In this light, the parallel campaign to abolish the cross media ru
les, conducted on the basis that editorial freedom would not be further eroded,
should possibly serve as a warning that cross media laws are in fact necessary.
At this point it is also worth considering the curious position of the Internet
industry, one of the most vocal opponents of Australia’s datacasting restriction
s. In an interview with the ABC, the Internet Industry Association chairman Patr
ick Fair made the following statements,
“…that the restrictions are setting back the development of cheap, easy avenues
for electronic commerce and will disadvantage the economy.”
“….we’re all becoming e-businesses, and everybody’s got to be familiar with the
technology and understand its strategic and commercial importance. And part of t
hat is getting the Internet into homes in Australia as cheaply and efficiently a
nd with as much broadband as possible.”
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
109
“Now, the data casting decision has killed, effectively, one of the primary ways
Australians could have got interactive television in the homes cheaply.” (Fair
2000)
These are similar to the sentiments expressed by other members of the ‘anti-DTV’
group, namely that the legislation deprives Australians of e-commerce, informat
ion and educational datacasting services. Remarkably, all of these applications
are allowed under the datacasting legislation. Moreover, one of the few profitab
le iTV applications in the UK, iTV games, is also permitted under the legislatio
n. Communication, iTV shopping, advertising, as well as data broadcasting are al
so applications supported by the legislation. On this basis, the author believes
there is sufficient scope to develop datacasting applications within the legisl
ation, though their economic viability may be questionable. However, it must be
noted that even the unrestricted iTV regimes in Europe and the UK have also prov
en unprofitable, so much so that the Spanish government recently abandoned the n
ation’s digital television transition. This raises the question of whether or no
t the collection of aspirant broadcasters have the requisite television industry
experience to deliver an economically viable broadcasting industry. The prospec
t of 16 unrestricted datacasting licenses, read additional television broadcaste
rs, in a nation of only 20 million people may in fact prove unsustainable and re
nder irreparable damage on the industry as a whole. There is little evidence els
ewhere to suggest otherwise. Moreover, the poor performance of the Internet indu
stry in developing viable business models would seem to disqualify it from offer
ing a viable solution to the television broadcasting industry. The author also n
otes that there is scope for the Internet industry to work with the current nati
onal and commercial broadcasters to develop datacasting solutions, in addition t
o the television providers outside of the ‘broadcasting service bands’, which ar
e not restricted by the datacasting legislation. These include the satellite and
cable pay TV providers Austar, Foxtel and Optus. In fact, almost all of the iTV
services in Europe and the UK are provided on pay TV satellite and cable platfo
rms. In conclusion, it is also worth highlighting the recent datacasting auction
failure in the United States. These licenses were unrestricted, however, in the
end, potential buyers were unable to formulate a viable business model for data
casting services.
[Update 5/5/03. In December 2002, the Australian Government invited interested p
arties to submit plans to introduce datacasting services on a trial basis. As a
consequence, Broadcast Australia intends to begin a datacasting trial within the
Sydney metropolitan area during 2003. Broadcast Australia’s Clive Morton stated
, “It is our view, that Datacasting offers the potential for new types of servic
es. Services which are not in direct competition with entertainment-based mainst
ream broadcasting; and which complement broadcasting services and provide additi
onal reason for the audience to convert to digital. Such new services could incl
ude teletext, health and lifestyle information, traffic and travel, educational
material, internet-over-terrestrial, government based information such as health
education services; even a digital terrestrial promotion service! (Morton, 2003
).” Morton also noted that the current lack of a standard API for set-top boxes
is a major obstacle to digital television take-up in Australia, given that DVB-M
HP is yet to be rolled
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
110
out, leaving a confused marketplace of competing API standards. This raises an i
mportant, but often neglected, point about the differences in the Australian and
British broadcasting environments, with Britain benefiting from the single set-
top box platform provided by pay-TV satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Broadcast Austr
alia will trial a terrestrial return channel for interactive services. ]
4.4
Viewer Expectations
While Europe continues at the forefront with iTV implementation, and research st
udies indicate that 65 million Americans will be iTV users by 2006, there is mou
nting doubt as to whether consumers actually want to interact with their televis
ions. Perhaps the first ominous signs of viewer iTV reticence surfaced in a 1994
trial in Orlando Florida, known as the Time Warner Full Service Network project
. Essentially a cable ‘walled garden’ iTV service, viewers were offered a number
of services on a pay-per-use basis, including VOD, shopping, games, an EPG, as
well as postal services. Reported to have cost 100 million dollars to deploy and
operate, the project failed to generate a profit and was disbanded in 1997. The
project resulted in some interesting findings, the most important indicating th
at viewers are not willing to pay for iTV services, that iTV applications must b
e simple, and that VOD is the most popular form of ‘interaction’ (Swedlow 2000).
More recent research in the U.S. is even less enthusiastic, in September 2001,
Statistical Research Inc revealed that 72% of its 3000 strong sample group were
not interested in interacting with their television. What is especially signific
ant about this study is that 142 of the 201 homes included in the study already
had interactive television, and demonstrated the same level of disinterest as th
ose without iTV. Again, VOD was cited as useful to viewers, along with EPGs and
PVRs, while Internet links, TV based Internet surfing, email, chat and even inte
ractive games, were of limited interest (Peretz 2001). Other studies supporting
this sentiment are also beginning to emerge, including a Gartner study in Europe
, which revealed that 94% of iTV viewers had not made a single purchase through
their television. 35% were not interested and 40% did not understand how to use
iTV services (Carton 2002). The underlying implication for all of this viewer fe
edback is that viewers use the Web for interaction and the television for entert
ainment and relaxation. This seems to corroborate the ‘lean forward, lean back’
dichotomy, meaning that people use the Internet to lean forward and interact, wh
ile television is a passive medium conducive to relaxation. Even some iTV indust
ry participants acknowledge the inherently different characteristics of televisi
on and Web like interactivity, such as OpenTV’s Mike Ivanchenko,
“….the more important consideration surrounding the viability of the provision o
f interactive content is matching the content to the display medium. As an examp
le, just because you can put a web site on a mobile phone with a two bit display
, it doesn’t mean it is a good reason to do so or that it will offer attractive
content.” (Liddel 2001)
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
111
Ivanchenko goes onto state that the most appropriate place to watch video is on
a television, not a PC. Conversely, it is equally inappropriate to consume non-v
ideo content via a television screen. It is here that the author believes the cr
ux of the problem lies, namely the poor resolution of standard definition televi
sion screens, making any from of interactivity both difficult and uninspiring. T
his major usability impairment is alluded to by Whitaker when he describes the u
nsatisfying experience of viewing Web content on a TV,
“ This is because Web content is typically viewed on a computer by a single user
positioned at close proximity to the screen, while television is usually watche
d at far greater distances and often by groups of viewers. This distinction is r
eferred to as the “one-foot vs ten foot experience” …. This implies that when vi
ewing the typical Web page on a TV screen, fonts and graphics are generally too
small to be comfortably viewed.” (Whitaker 2001 p. 10)
While there are other usability issues that impact on the iTV experience, such a
s poor interactive design and cumbersome hand held remote navigation, the author
believes that the solution to more successful interactive applications can be f
ound in High Definition Television, a high resolution technology originally desi
gned to meet the needs of the information era. With a picture resolution, scanni
ng format, and relative viewing distance conducive to the viewing of text and gr
aphics, it is curious that the iTV industry has not embraced HDTV as a vital par
tner in the drive to create a viable interactive television viewing experience.
Moreover, the iTV sector needs to concentrate on iTV content that is both approp
riate to the television medium, as well as appealing to viewers. To date, this s
eems to be limited to directly related program enhancements, video-on-demand, ti
me shifting PVRs, and gaming. The positive viewer experiences that a successful
rollout of these applications would bring, may in fact encourage viewers to use
other iTV applications. The phenomenal growth of DVD movies indicates that consu
mers are more than willing to interact in the television space, but only when th
at interaction meets their viewing needs.
[Update 5/5/03. The interactive television industry continues to struggle financ
ially, with content creators, middleware companies, platform operators, and broa
dcasters recording substantial losses during 2002. In January 2003, Optus abando
ned its iTV trial in Sydney, Australia, rumored to have spent $200 million on th
e venture – its iTV assets sold to cable company Foxtel. Martin Dalgleish, Consu
mer Multimedia managing director for Optus offered the following reason for aban
doning iTV, “The trial indicated that while the technology is robust, the iTV bu
siness model requires significant capital investment and significantly higher cu
stomer spend to generate an acceptable return. The time is not right for Optus t
o offer iTV (qtd in “Veldre”, 2003).” Middleware and applications provider, Open
TV, continues to incur significant losses, totaling $802 million in 2002, while
Liberate Technologies has been investigated for internal accounting irregulariti
es, and even had its stocked delisted from the NASDAQ for
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
112
failing to meet reporting requirements. Canadian iMagicTV lost $4.6 million in 2
002, WorldGate’s revenues fell 42% in the 4th quarter of 2002, totaling 5.3 mill
ion for the year. EPG developer Gemstar lurches towards bankruptcy, notching up
$6.4 net losses in 2002. ACTV lost $43.6 million. In February 2003, the end of A
OLTV was announced, ending America Online’s foray into television. Meanwhile, BS
kyB estimates that its IARPU will increase from 15 pounds in 2002 to 30 - 40 pou
nds by 2005. However, Sky’s overall ARPU for that date is 400 pounds (Swedlow, 2
002-03). Many prospective and current iTV content creators currently face a clim
ate of technical complexity, competing platforms, high entry costs, and worst of
all, questionable business models. The situation in Australia is aggravated by
a limited digital pay-TV infrastructure, essentially only the regional satellite
broadcaster Austar. And with a common terrestrial iTV set-top box not yet in th
e marketplace, the ABC’s forays into iTV, such as A Long Way to the Top, current
ly reach only 4% of Australian TV households. However, in February 2003, Kim Wil
liams of cable pay-TV provider Foxtel, announced the company’s intention to upgr
ade its network to digital, enabling greater interactive services via a common c
able set-top box. In addition to offering 120 digital channels by the end of 200
3, Foxtel intends to launch PVR services in 2004. Moreover, according to William
s, 30 of the 120 channels will be NVOD channels. Foxtel estimates that the cost
of the upgrade will be $650AUD million, the bulk of which will go towards subsid
ising subscriber set-top boxes, approximately $500 per subscriber (Craig, 2003).
Foxtel is also involved in negotiations with the free-to-air broadcasters regar
ding payment for re-transmission of their signals through the cable platform, si
gnaling the adoption of similar strategy to BSkyB in the UK, which now receives
24 million pounds from iTV content providers to access its network, as well as 1
7 million pounds from both the BBC and the ITV Network for use of its platform.
The BBC is currently embroiled in a dispute with BSkyB after its recent decision
to depart from the Sky conditional access platform, with Sky threatening to rel
egate the BBC’s main channels to a less prominent position on the company’s EPG.
The BBC hopes to develop a free-to-view satellite market, with the ITV Network
voicing similar aspirations. However, it must also be noted that without BSkyB’s
substantial investment in subscriber digital set-top boxes, digital and iTV tak
e-up in the UK would be marginal at best. Free to air broadcasters in Australia
are therefore possibly justified in feeling nervous about the prospect of Foxtel
controlling content delivery platforms to the extent of Sky in the UK.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
113
CHAPTER 5 – CONTENT ACQUISITION – (17 pages)
(of six chapters)
DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, 2003 Jeffrey Bird Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
113
CHAPTER FIVE CONTENT ACQUISITION
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
114
CHAPTER 5: CONTENT ACQUISITION
5.1 Reconciling Formats In A Time Of Transition
For most of the Twentieth Century, program content acquisition for film and tele
vision was limited to a few tried and tested technologies, at least at the profe
ssional level. Feature films and television programs were predominantly shot on
film, especially when content acquisition called for location based recording, w
hile studio based television relied on one or two accepted open reel video forma
ts. It was not until the advent of Sony’s Betacam video camcorders in 1981 that
technology ushered in an increasingly complicated content acquisition environmen
t. Today, program makers are faced with a plethora of competing formats, some at
the cutting edge, while others are decidedly legacy technologies, though still
in use in many parts of the world. The situation is further complicated by unfol
ding revolutionary changes in video and broadcasting technology, including the t
ransition from analogue to digital, as well as standard definition to high defin
ition television. In this precarious production climate, selecting the right acq
uisition format is now of paramount importance. Arriving at a suitable format sh
ould be the result of careful post-production evaluation, analysis of intended d
elivery format, consideration of the shelf life of the content, as well as techn
ical evaluations where prospective formats are tested in the field against the o
bjectives of the intended program. In most instances, these considerations will
have to be balanced with the intended cost of the production. This chapter is de
dicated to a brief discussion of the various acquisition formats that a content
creator is likely to come across.
5.2
Video Acquisition Formats
Today there are a multitude of videotape formats, growing at an alarming rate by
the advent of digital and HDTV production. Until relatively recently, videotape
production was entirely an analogue world, from low-end consumer oriented syste
ms, to extremely expensive “broadcast” formats. Analogue technology essentially
restricted consumer formats to one or two generations (copying) before picture d
egradation rendered the image “unwatchable”, while high end professional formats
survived four or five generations – an important consideration for editing and
general post-production. While digital video technology allows multiple generati
ons without significant picture degradation, the highend analogue formats are st
ill valid acquisition mediums for 4:3 aspect ratio broadcast television. When ev
aluating both analogue and broadcast formats, it is worth noting that tape size
and tape speed often provide an indication of the quality of the format. The wid
er the tape and
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
115
the faster it moves through the recording mechanism, the better the resulting pi
cture quality. This is because robust recording formats distribute their magneti
sm over a larger area, rendering them less susceptible to tape dropouts and the
rigours of post-production. “Manufacturers, in an effort to pack the most data i
nto the tiniest space, have reduced the detectable magnetism to just a whisker a
bove non-existent. Serious pro users aim for formats with the wider track widths
.” (Utz, ?) However, budgetary and practical considerations arise here, for fast
er and wider tapes result in increased tape consumption, increased costs, and la
rger more cumbersome recording equipment. While the advent of HD acquisition wil
l ultimately supercede both analogue and digital standard definition formats, th
eir significant legacy value, coupled with their affordable availability, warran
ts the following discussion of their attributes. For a discussion of HD video ac
quisition, please refer to Chapter 2.
5.3
Analogue Video Formats
Open Reel Formats Before the arrival of the video cassette, the transport of vid
eo resembled that of film or more accurately giant reel to reel audio systems. I
t was expensive, awkward, and entirely unsuited to field acquisition. The first
of these open reel systems was the two-inch quad format introduced by Sony in 19
62. Two-inch remained the standard for television broadcast until the late 1970’
s, when Sony introduced its open reel successor, One-Inch Type C. One-Inch, with
its inherent signal stability derived from a 1” wide tape stock, remained the a
ccepted broadcast format through the 1980’s and most of the 1990’s, with digital
formats still in the process of replacing it as a program delivery format. It i
s important to note that even One-Inch was not suited to field acquisition, it w
as strictly a studio/post-production/transmission format. In the case of non-stu
dio acquisition, other formats such as film and Betacam were employed in the fie
ld and later transferred to OneInch for post-production.
3/4 ” U-Matic In 1971, Sony introduced 3/4” U-Matic, the world’s first 3/4” vide
o cassette recorder. At about 250 lines resolution (Jennings, 1997), this format
is slightly better than VHS due to its increased tape width. While this is stil
l far below the NTSC 525 lines, or 625 PAL that is considered broadcast quality,
3/4” U-Matic revolutionised ENG news gathering by facilitating the development
of portable tape decks that resulted in the discontinuation of 16mm film for suc
h purposes. Its ease of use and relative affordability also encouraged its use a
s a common distribution format for industrial, educational and even broadcast co
mmercials. U-Matic was subsequently upgraded to U-Matic SP, based on a metal par
ticle tape that increased resolution to approximately 330 lines resolution (Ibid
.). In western countries, 3/4” U-Matic has been superceded by the new digital DV
formats.
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VHS Introduced by JVC in 1976, it is ironic that the poorest quality videotape f
ormat is also the most ubiquitous, reaching international saturation point throu
gh the 1980’s and 1990’s as the world’s first practical home video recording sys
tem. For the first time ever, consumers could affordably tape programs off-air,
shoot their own footage, as well as buy and rent an endless supply of movies and
television content released on VHS. In fact, it is no accident that content mak
ers around the world, and particularly Hollywood, embraced this technically limi
ted format; its low 240 lines of horizontal resolution (Jennings, 1997), low cos
t, and extremely poor copying performance made this the ideal anti-piracy consum
er format. While VHS could not be considered a broadcast acquisition format, nor
even a very good consumer/industrial acquisition format, its 95% home penetrati
on rate makes VHS the most widely accepted content distribution format (DigitalT
elevision, 2002).
Super VHS & Hi8 Introduced by JVC and Sony respectively, S-VHS and Hi8 are essen
tially high performance versions of consumer VHS and consumer 8mm video, designe
d to appeal to industrial, educational and low budget program makers seeking an
inexpensive near broadcast acquisition format. The approximate resolution of 400
horizontal lines (Jennings, 1997) is achieved by treating the signal differentl
y than the preceding formats, which consolidate the luminance and colour element
s of the picture as one. However, S-VHS and Hi8 separate the luminance (brightne
ss) and color, resulting in improved colour rendition. While S-VHS suffers from
a bulky design, due to its 1/2” tape size, the 1/4” Hi8 tape is highly susceptib
le to tape errors and dropouts. In wealthy countries, S-VHS and Hi8 have now bee
n conquered by the new digital DV formats, which offer broadcast quality with th
e benefits of digital technology, and at a similar price.
Betacam and Betacam SP It was not until 1981, when Sony introduced the Betacam f
ormat that the world had its first true broadcast quality portable camcorder. Su
bsequently upgraded with metal tape in 1986, Betacam SP delivered over 500 lines
resolution on a 1/2” tape (Ibid.), making it the international standard for fie
ld acquisition. Though prone to dropouts, the 1/2” inch Betacam SP format equale
d that of 1” inch open reel videotape, made possible by the new component method
of treating the video signal. While previous formats employed composite video,
where color information is recorded as one channel, component video separates th
e signal into three separate channels, one for red, green, and blue. The effect
is better image performance, in particular better colour rendition and sharpness
. Today, Betacam SP is a widespread acquisition format, particularly in news gat
hering. According to Sony, more than 350,000 Betacam SP units have been sold wor
ldwide,
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making it the standard against which all other formats are judged (Ibid.). Howev
er, with the advent of cheaper professional digital camcorders, Betacam SP’s day
s are numbered – evidenced by the discontinuation of Betacam SP equipment manufa
cturing in April 2002.
5.4
Standard Definition Digital Video
During the next few years, professional broadcasting will shift entirely to digi
tal acquisition and post production video formats. This process is already signi
ficantly underway, with many broadcasters only accepting program delivery on dig
ital formats, in particular Digital Betacam. However, the move to digital is com
plicated by a growing body of digital formats, most of which are incompatible wi
th each other. This is compounded by the rapid development of new compression te
chnologies and the impending adoption of high definition television. While it is
generally accepted that all of the digital formats, from the consumer DV to the
high end professional formats, are more or less broadcast quality, there are de
monstrable differences in quality, based on different sampling rates, the degree
of compression, tape speeds and size. Once again, as is the case with analogue
formats, choosing the right digital format is contingent upon the task at hand,
the relative cost, and the intended delivery format. While all prospective forma
ts should be personally tested against the intended purpose, the following techn
ical elements are a starting point.
5.4.1
Compression
Although Sony introduced the world’s first digital format in 1987, known as D-1,
followed by D-2 in 1988, digital video production remained prohibitively expens
ive until introduction of the DV formats almost a decade later. In fact, these l
arge 3/4” digital formats were strictly non-acquisition post-production formats,
designed for high end graphics and composting work. These formats (D1, D2, D3 a
nd D5) are large and expensive because they are uncompressed formats, meaning th
at their signals are free of compression related artifacts or picture flaws – we
ll suited to complex post production. However, uncompressed video means high dat
a rates of around 142-270Mbps, requiring a large tape width and sophisticated da
ta processing hardware. Producing a more affordable format, with a smaller tape
size, required the use of compression technology to reduce the data flow and tap
e consumption (Utz, ?). In other words, compressed video formats discard picture
information as the video stream is encoded on the tape, fooling the human eye t
o accept the picture as flawless. In the case of the DV formats, the compression
ratio is 5:1, meaning that four fifths of the data captured by the CCD is throw
n away. Although compression technology is advancing rapidly, in general, higher
compression ratios translate into poorer picture quality. Digital Betacam gener
ally out performs the DV formats due to its mild 2:1 compression ratio, which be
comes apparent in complex post production and chroma keying.
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Another potential problem with compression is a particular format’s ability to e
ncode data at a steady rate, and in realtime. Complex scenes, sports, fast camer
a movements, and rapidly changing backgrounds can overwhelm the encoder’s abilit
y to process the material quickly enough, resulting in compression artifacts and
blockiness. Concatenation may also pose problems for programs requiring complex
graphics and compositing, as multigenerational re-compressing can result in com
pression artifacts, even when the same type of compression is used (Silbergleid
and Pescatore, 2000, chapter 4). Again, it is important to evaluate a format bas
ed on the needs of a particular program. There is little point in spending huge
quantities of money on Digital Betacam camcorders and tape stock for a program r
equiring straightforward post production, or similarly expecting a DV format to
stand up to the rigours of complex special effects and compositing.
5.4.2
Sampling Ratios
The second technical factor impacting on format quality is the colour sampling r
atio, the amount of colour samples per second. Most digital formats capture 13.5
million luminance samples per second. To sample the colour at the same sampling
rate would require 13.5 million samples for each of the three colours that make
up the video signal, clearly an overwhelming amount of data to process (Utz, ?)
. This would be called a 4:4:4 sampling ratio, i.e. 4 samples of Yellow, Red and
Blue. To squeeze the signal on the videotape, each format makes a trade off bet
ween the bandwidth and the colour sampling ratio. In the case of digital video s
tandards, a sampling rate of 4:2:2 is considered the right balance, providing en
ough colour sharpness for chroma keying and graphics compositing, at an acceptab
le data size. This means that formats that employ 4:2:2, capture two samples of
red and blue for every four samples of yellow. Examples of 4:2:2 sampling includ
e Digital Betacam, D-1, D-5, D-9, and DVCPRO50. Given that a higher sampling rat
io results in higher data rates, inexpensive formats employ a lower sampling rat
e of 4:1:1 in NTSC and PAL (DVCPRO), or 4:2:0 in PAL. It has been argued that co
nverting a 4:1:1 signal to 4:2:0 for broadcast in NTSC and PAL, as well as DVD a
nd digital satellite, results in a 4:1:0 sampling ratio, or about twice the colo
ur degradation when 4:2:2 is converted to 4:2:0 (Ibid.). Moreover, Adam Wilt in
his technical appraisal of the DV formats, argues that the 4:2:0 sampling rate u
sed in PAL DV and DVCAM is actually less effective than 4:1:1 for multi-generati
on purposes,
“….while 4:2:0 works well with PAL and SECAM color encoding and broadcasting, in
terlace already diminishes vertical resolution, and the heavy filtering needed t
o properly process 4:2:0 images causes noticeable losses; as a result, multigene
rational work in 4:2:0 is much more subject to visible degradation than multigen
erational work in 4:1:1” (Wilt, 2002).
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He goes on to argue that this is the reason that DVCPRO adopted 4:1:1 even for P
AL versions of the format. In conclusion, although 4:1:1/4:2:0 is superior to Be
tacam SP’s 3:1:1 sampling, the 4:2:2 sampling rate of Digital Betacam, Digital-S
, and DVCPRO50, supports better overall colour resolution, better multigeneratio
nal performance, as well as better conversion to 4:2:0 for broadcast/DVD. Moreov
er, the increased detail of 4:2:2 will perform better when upconverted to HDTV.
5.4.3
Bit Rate and Date Rates
Finally, the bit rate and tape speed of a digital format can function as an indi
cator of quality. While most formats capture at 8 bits per sample, including DV,
formats such as Digital Betacam and D-5 support a bit rate of 10 bits per sampl
e, resulting in increased brightness range, smoother pictures and a greater sign
al to noise ratio (Utz, ?). Moreover, higher data rates translate into higher re
solution images, as less compression and more picture information can be passed
through the system. While DVCPRO50 (50Mbps) has double the data rate of the othe
r DV formats, Digital Betacam (90Mbps), and D1 (270Mbps) have significantly high
er rates of data capture.
5.4.4 Digital Formats The following are the main digital formats currently in us
e, though many of them are used solely in post production, and hence are not acq
uisition formats.
D-1 Introduced by Sony in 1987, D-1 was the world’s first 4:2:2 component digita
l format, boasting a data rate of 270Mbps of uncompressed video and a bit rate o
f 8 bits per sample. Exclusively a high end post production format, the extreme
cost of D-1 equipment has seen it loose ground to cheaper digital formats, and i
s now used predominately for post production requiring extensive picture detail,
such as complex graphics and compositing.
D-2 The following year Sony/Ampex released a composite version of D-1, called D-
2. The compositing of colour with luminance (composite) resulted in a cheaper fo
rmat, while also reducing the cost of cabling and installation in post productio
n facilities. However, while D-2 also uses a 3/4” tape, and is uncompressed, its
composite credentials result in a 4:0:0 sampling rate, in addition to a data ra
te of 143 Mbps. This 4:0:0 composite signal is adequate for standard post produc
tion, but becomes problematic for heavy multigenerational post production work.
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D-3 D-3 is similar to D-2 in that it is a composite, 4:0:0, 8 bit, 143 Mbps form
at. Where it differs is in its smaller tape width, 1/2” instead of 3/4”. This fa
cilitated the construction of digital camcorders utilising the digital D-3 forma
t. While Panasonic manufactures D-3 camcorders, the format as a whole has been l
argely eclipsed by component formats.
D-5 Panasonic also offers the D-5 format, probably the highest resolution SDTV f
ormat (also used for HDTV, along with D6), due to its 10 bit uncompressed digita
l signal. This is a 4:2:2, 170Mbps, 1/2” format. Despite its half inch tape size
, at present it is still only a high end post production format, suited to heavy
graphics and compositing work. The formats D-1 to D-5 are uncompressed formats,
resulting in high data rate that are designed for post production facilities. I
n order to design formats that can be utilised as camera acquisition formats, va
rying degrees of compression must be introduced. The following formats are compr
essed digital acquisition formats.
Digital Betacam In 1993 Sony introduced the world’s first component digital camc
order format, called Digital Betacam, it was the natural successor to the compan
y’s highly successful Betacam SP line. Employing a mild 2:1 compression ratio, a
10 bit 90Mbps data rate, and a 4:2:2 sampling ratio, all in a 1/2” cassette, Di
gital Betacam is easily the highest quality SDTV digital acquisition format curr
ently available. Digital Betacam also benefits from its strong line of camcorder
s and VCR’s from Sony, along with its acceptance within broadcasting as a defact
o digital standard. Digital Betacam, although still costly compared to lower qua
lity formats, seems to be a good choice for general purpose production work, suc
h as ENG news gathering, drama and episodic television. It is probably the only
compressed format that is capable of heavy multi-generational post production wo
rk.
Digital-S Also known as D-9, Digital-S employs a fairly mild 3:3:1 compression r
atio, at a 50Mbps, 8 bit data rate, and a 4:2:2 colour sampling ratio. Both Digi
tal-S, and its close relative DVCPRO50, achieve a mild compression ratio by spli
tting the compression work between two codecs. Digital-S has the distinction of
being based on the VHS cassette transport, making the format downward compatible
with analogue VHS. To date, only JVC supports this format, so the television in
dustry has been reluctant to adopt the format (Iisakkila, 2000).
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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DVCPRO50 Panasonic has introduced a 4:2:2 version of the popular DVCPRO format.
A direct rival to Digital-S, DVCPRO50 also employs a 3:3:1 compression ration, a
50Mbps 8 bit data rate, and 4:2:2 sampling on a 1/2” camcorder tape. Both DVCPR
O50 and Digital-S offer a compromise between quality and cost when compared with
the more expensive Digital Betacam format. Moreover, the DVCPRO50 production ge
ar is somewhat more portable and lightweight than the Digital-S field equipment.
While both DVCPRO 50 and Digital-S (along with Digital Betacam) are high detail
formats capable of acceptable up-conversion to HDTV, general industry sentiment
is that they are not as robust as Digital Betacam for high-end chroma keying an
d compositing work.
DV Formats The DV formats are the result of a consortium of 10 companies that jo
intly pursued their development. Essentially, all the DV formats utilise the sam
e compression technology to record picture detail at a 5:1 compression ratio. Th
is is achieved via a 25Mbps, 8 bit data rate, with both 4:1:1 (NTSC/PAL) and 4:2
:0 (PAL) colour sampling ratios. A 1/4” tape size results in extremely lightweig
ht, cost effective camcorders, directed at both the consumer and prosumer (semi-
professional applications). DVCPRO (Panasonic) and DVCAM (Sony) are professional
extensions of the consumer DV format. Some minor differences include a 4:1:1 sa
mpling ratio for DVCPRO in both NTSC and PAL, increased tape speed, track width,
and a metal particle tape for a more robust recording format. DVCAM also offers
a faster tape speed and track width than standard DV, though not as much as DVC
PRO, and does not use the more robust metal particle tape. This would indicate t
hat while all three formats record at the same resolution, DVCAM, and to a great
er extent, DVCPRO, offer better format performance through reduced tape errors.
5.5
Resolution Wars
While the long running battle of film versus videotape resolution continues to r
age in industry circles, every new digital format seems to start a similar debat
e within the video industry itself. For many years Betacam SP was the acquisitio
n standard against which all other video was judged, then came the DV upstarts –
cheap, mobile and digital. Usually, the best format in the world is the format
that a particular entity has an investment in, and this is often how many in the
industry will subjectively evaluate the various video formats. To a certain ext
ent, they are justified, as that have become accustomed to the strengths and wea
kness of their chosen format and have learned how to maximise its imaging potent
ial. However, as dangerous as it may be, it is possible to rate the formats by e
valuating their relative specifications, such as data rates, sampling ratios and
compression ratios. Based on
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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the computations of this information, Adam Wilt bravely proffers the following f
ormat ratings, out of 10:
D-5 (10-bit uncompressed digital) D-1 (8-bit uncompressed digital) Digital Betac
am, Ampex DCT D-9 (Digital-S), DVCPRO50 DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, Digital8 MII, Betacam
SP 1” Type C 3/4” SP 3/4” U-Matic, Hi8, SVHS Video 8, Betamax VHS EIAJ Type 1,
Fisher-Price Pixelvision (Wilt, 2002)
10 9.9 9.7 9.6 9 8.9 8.7 6.5 5 4 3 1
However, while the author mostly agrees with Wilt’s ranking of the formats, it i
s certainly possible to argue that he has ranked the DV formats above their true
performance. This is borne out by an impartial test by the European Broadcastin
g Union and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the
findings of which were released in a 200 page report (SMPTE/EBU, 1998). The test
s, carried out at two different viewing distances and at different generations i
n post-processing, compared a number of formats, including DV. The tests consist
ently revealed that analogue Betacam SP slightly outperformed DV until post-proc
essing reached the seventh generation, where the digital properties of DV saved
the image from severe picture degradation. It is therefore possible to deduce th
at for most standard television programs, requiring three to four generations in
post-production, Betacam SP performs better than DV. While this difference may
be extremely slight and even imperceptible to the uncritical eye, it does dispel
the commonly held belief that DV, DVCAM and DVCPRO are better than Betacam SP.
This is an important point, for the Betacam SP camcorder, lens and CCD is a high
ly professional piece of equipment, capable of higher quality images and greater
image control than most consumer DV cameras. Furthermore, the widespread availa
bility of Betacam SP equipment and its impending obsolescence mean that it is st
ill a format worth considering for the budget conscious producer.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
123
 Reproduced with the kind permission of the EBU.
Figure 5.1 Generation loss of DV and Betacam SP. 1st generation.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the EBU.
Figure 5.2 Generation loss of DV and Betacam SP. 4th generation.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
124
 Reproduced with the kind permission of the EBU.
Figure 5.3 Generation loss of DV and Betacam SP. 7th generation.
Having settled the DV versus Betacam SP question with some hard evidence, the re
port went on to test the effectiveness of Digital Betacam against 4:2:2 DV based
50Mbps formats (DVCPRO50 and Digital-S), with Betacam SP used as a reference po
int. After seventh generation post processing and pixel shift, the tests reveale
d that Digital Betacam was superior to 50 Mbps DV, with both substantially bette
r than analogue Betacam SP. Again, it is important to recognise that differences
are slight and will only become an issue with programs requiring complex post-p
roduction. Other issues, such as the relative cost of the two formats should be
considered against the task at hand.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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 Reproduced with the kind permission of the EBU.
Figure 5.4 Generation loss of DVCPRO 50, Betacam SP, and Digital Betacam 7th gen
eration.
5.6
Lenses
Often overlooked, but equally important as the acquisition format, is the qualit
y of the lens on the front of the camera. Using a high-end expensive acquisition
format such as Digital Betacam, or even 35mm film, with a cheap lens is likely
to result in poor quality images. Essentially analogue devices, whether shooting
in analogue or digital, lenses are carefully crafted pieces of glass that trans
mit images in the form of light waves to the recording format, which may be film
, video tape, or even disk media. The quality of the glass in the lens, and its
overall construction, can vary considerably – usually reflected in the price. Fa
ster lenses designed for low light conditions, complex zoom lenses with multiple
elements, and recently developed HD lenses made to resolve higher resolutions,
can cost significant amounts of money. In the case of the various DV recording f
ormats, the difference in performance between the consumer and professional orie
nted cameras is usually in the quality of the glass on the front. While both typ
es of camera may incorporate sophisticated three CCD imagers, professional camer
as will support detachable/interchangeable high quality lenses, affording field
of view flexibility, greater control over depth of field and direct manual focus
. Consumer DV cameras are usually limited to lesser quality fixed lenses that pr
ovide the videographer with a limited degree of control.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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5.7
The CCD
Another distinct difference between consumer and professional DV cameras is in t
he quality and sophistication of the CCD, the chip used to convert the analogue
signal from the lens into a digital signal that is recorded on the tape stock. M
any consumer cameras employ only one CCD chip for imaging, while professional ca
meras employ three CCDs, one for each of the colour components. This improves sh
arpness and resolution. In some circumstances, even consumer DV cameras have thr
ee CCD imagers, but these are invariably smaller, capturing fewer pixels. Howeve
r, professional program makers have learned to maximise the quality of consumer
DV cameras by paying careful attention to adequate lighting, thereby eliciting t
he best performance from consumer DV camera chips (Silbergleid and Pescatore, 20
00, chapter 3).
5.8
Film Acquisition
Since the advent of video production some 40 years ago, the ‘imminent’ fall of f
ilm has been hotly debated between traditional filmmakers and their digital bret
hren, resulting in some ‘fundamentalist’ positions on both sides of the CCD. For
this reason it is difficult to reach agreement on film versus video performance
, in particular, their relative dynamic and image resolutions. However, most exp
erienced in shooting both video and film will generally agree that there is litt
le comparison between video and film, with 16mm and 35mm film being vastly super
ior in terms of resolution and dynamic range. At 4000 pixels of horizontal resol
ution, and a dynamic range of 1000:1, 35mm film compares favourably to the sub-1
000 pixels of horizontal resolution and 100:1 dynamic range of standard definiti
on video (Wallis, 2001). In fact, as discussed in Chapter 2, the birth of HDTV h
as ushered in a revival of film acquisition formats, as producers seek to manage
the transition to a higher resolution viewing environment. While film offers bo
th format longevity and high resolution, an impediment to its use, particularly
in non-U.S. productions, has been cost. Eleven minutes of Super16mm film costs a
pproximately $US400 with processing, making it an expensive proposition for prog
rams with high shooting ratios. This includes news, current affairs, even docume
ntaries. At twice the cost of 16mm, 35mm is definitely beyond the reach of all b
ut the most expensive productions, which are usually high-end television commerc
ials and feature films. Up until the late 70’s, even documentaries, current affa
irs and news were shot on 16mm film, but the advent of portable video cameras an
d rising costs saw most outside broadcasting and acquisition shift to magnetic v
ideo tape. However, it is important to note that nature documentaries, with thei
r emphasis on high image quality, slow motion photography and content longevity
are still predominately shot on Super16mm, and in some cases 35mm. Most feature
films will continue to be shot on 35mm film, though HD production is destined to
make inroads here, while 80% of primetime American television programming (less
news) is originated on film (Silbergleid and Pescatore, 2000, chapter 3). Budge
tary considerations create a somewhat different picture in Australia, with most
feature films still shot in 35mm, with Super16mm a cheaper option for a blowup t
o a 35mm
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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theatrical print. While mini-series still tend to be shot on Super16mm in Austra
lia, many are now shot on tape, and just about all episodic television is shot o
n tape.
5.9
Future Proof Film
Another important factor in the debate surrounding film versus videotape is the
need for producers to ‘future proof’ their productions and thereby maximise the
longevity of their content. This is an important production consideration, given
the shift to high definition broadcasts over the next five to ten years. Until
relatively recently (the last year or two), all of the preceding video formats h
ave been fixed to the 4:3 television aspect ratio, which has dominated televisio
n since its inception. However, the new 16:9 aspect ratio of both standard defin
ition (SDTV) and high definition (HDTV) digital television, along with the signi
ficantly increased resolution of HDTV, will limit the future use of this materia
l on emerging formats. For this reason alone, film, particularly 35mm film with
its high resolving capacity, is “…the only medium capable of crossing most of th
e boundaries that exist in program delivery” (Weidemann, ?). Both now, and in th
e future. Unlike standard definition video (even if shot in 16:9), film is of su
fficient resolving power to be transferred to any future digital format, whether
that may be SDTV, HDTV, or some other technology with a resolution beyond HDTV,
such as 4K computer imagery. This touches upon the inherent freedom of film as
a physical format, a format that is essentially a series of photographic images
that pass through a film/projection gate at 24/25 frames per second. Recovering
these images is simply a matter of adjusting the aspect ratio and frame rate of
the film transport. Video on the other hand, even HDTV, by its very nature is li
mited to a fixed aspect ratio, bit rate, resolution, scan method, and compressio
n algorithm (Ibid.). While it is probable that a future digital acquisition form
at will eventually surpass film in performance, 35mm is still the most future pr
oof format available to motion picture content creators. Given that American pro
ducers are generally protecting the future of their programs by shooting film or
in some cases HD, it is curious that Australian filmmakers are continuing to pr
oduce the overwhelming majority of their content in the standard definition form
at, albeit in 16:9 aspect ratio. With Australia moving to HDTV by 2008, and the
United States by 2006, producers should be considering the implications of consi
gning their content to a lifespan of four to six years. Another consideration fo
r future proofing of motion picture content is the physical medium itself. Made
in 1909, it is still possible to view America’s first narrative film, The Birth
of a Nation, not to mention thousands of films shot through the 20’s 30’s, 40’s
and 50’s. Film is a physical medium capable of lasting hundreds of years, even a
s much as 500 years for black and white emulsions. Contrast this with video, a m
edium recorded on highly unstable magnetic tape that in most circumstances will
only last 10 to 15 years before it begins to break down. Tales of television pro
ducers returning to program archives only to find magnetic tapes in various stag
es of physical decay are salient reminders of the ephemeral nature of video tech
nology. Moreover, locating functioning obsolete video playback machines is also
potentially problematic. On the other hand, content originated on film is
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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likely continue generating income for content creators for many years into the f
uture. Expect see ‘I Love Lucy’ on HDTV and any other technology invented in the
years to come.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION – (22 pages)
(of six chapters)
DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia Swinburne University of Technology
© 2002, 2003 Jeffrey Bird Email: jrbird@swin.edu.au
CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
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CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION
6.1 Conclusion
While the transition to digital television represents a broadcasting environment
complicated by a raft of competing technologies, both digital and legacy analog
ue, it also represents a promising new direction in how content is created and d
elivered to the viewer. Some of these enhancements include improved signal recep
tion, a widescreen aspect ratio, surround sound, multiview cameras, closed capti
oning, as well as the capacity to utilise the spectrum efficiencies inherent in
the digital signal to provide greater choice through multichanneling. In the cas
e of the new internationally endorsed 16:9 widescreen format, program producers
will need to optimise content creation for both widescreen as well as the 4:3 le
gacy aspect ratio. This will require new approaches to content capture and a rev
iew of existing production processes. The prospect of multi-channeling is potent
ially more problematic, in that it challenges the prevailing commercial, politic
al and viewer paradigms that have underpinned broadcasting since its inception.
While the kind of multi-channel choice found in Europe would seemingly benefit b
oth broadcasters and viewers, this paper has revealed a linkage between content
choice and viewer fragmentation, resulting in diminished broadcaster revenues an
d greater content expenditures. The questionable business model of multi-channel
choice is further highlighted by some high profile collapses in the European an
d British broadcasting industries in recent months. Moreover, multi-channel broa
dcasters still in the market have comprehensively failed to generate adequate re
venues to cover their costs. It is in this light that a highly vocal campaign to
permit multi-channeling in Australia should examined; the risks are substantial
. High Definition television, a sub class of digital television, is perhaps the
most promising digital television offering, potentially the greatest advancement
in television since the advent of colour in the 1970’s. This paper has indicate
d that the dramatically improved picture resolution of HDTV will not only afford
‘cinema like’ viewing experiences, but also provide a platform for the true con
vergence of information, interactivity and television, providing a range of oppo
rtunities in multimedia related applications. To a large extent, the transition
to HDTV will be facilitated by a range of new home theater display technologies,
including HDTV plasma and CRT screens, along with DLP/LCD HDTV projection syste
ms. Contrary to popular opinion, HDTV display technology is now moving to the ma
instream, with consumer HDTV displays falling rapidly in price as manufacturing
approaches critical mass. While Europe has largely spurned HDTV, prices in the U
nited States and Australia for HDTV CRT displays have fallen to under $3000 Aust
ralian dollars, a level comparable to standard definition digital televisions.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
131
Moreover, while HDTV confusion still bedevils consumer electronics retailers and
consumers alike, the research also revealed that HDTV is beginning to generate
traction in the U.S. market, with the take up rate of digital television now riv
aling that of colour television. The increasing availability of HDTV content and
programming has also been instrumental in generating HDTV acceptance, with the
leading American broadcasters transmitting approximately 20 percent of their pro
gramming in HD. Recent announcements by the Hollywood studios to release HDTV co
ntent on Digital VHS package media should drive take up even further. These prom
ising developments seem to contradict the proclamations of what can be described
as Australia’s anti-HDTV lobby group, indicating that much of this opposition i
s based on a lack of understanding, as well as vested business interests. Again,
as in the case of multi-channeling, this opposition can be viewed as a wider ca
mpaign conducted by non-television media interests to gain access to Australia’s
television broadcasting spectrum. In addition to HDTV and improved viewing expe
riences, digital television has also ushered in a comprehensive range of new int
eractive television applications, including applications dedicated to program en
hancements, information services, t-commerce, games, interactive advertising, co
mmunications, in addition to personalised television through video-ondemand and
digital personal video recorders. With these exciting new applications, viewers
are able to move beyond the traditionally passive medium of television, to parti
cipate in program content, conduct transactions, gather information and generall
y tailor content consumption to suit their own needs. The research conducted in
writing this paper revealed that some interactive television applications are mo
re appealing to viewers, in particular, direct program enhancements, participato
ry quiz shows, voting, dedicated interactive games, sports programming enhanceme
nts, and betting. Time shifting technologies, such as video-on-demand and person
al video recorders have also been consistently cited by viewers as the most appe
aling aspects of digital television, although the underlying business models of
these applications have yet to be adequately tested. In fact, similar to the pro
blems faced by multi-channeling, interactive television has yet to establish via
ble commercial foundations, with gambling at present accounting for the lion’s s
hare of interactive revenue in the most developed iTV markets. Other application
s, such as information based services and t-commerce have, in general, failed to
meet expectations, although t-commerce tends to generate viewer interest when d
irectly connected with programming, in particular impulse buying of program merc
handise. Research has also revealed promising viewer responses to interactive ad
vertising applications, though it remains to be seen whether viewers maintain th
eir enthusiasm over the longer term, should such applications become a common fe
ature of television. The advent of user controlled advertising, along with video
-on-demand and time shifting video recorders, represents a potential paradigm sh
ift in the transmission and consumption of television content, disrupting the fl
ow of content, and undermining the broadcasting business models that are predica
ted on sufficient viewer consolidation to generate adequate advertising revenues
. The author maintains that somewhere in the television chain, someone must pay
for quality content. It is perhaps for these reasons that traditional commercial
broadcasters have resisted the push to roll out costly time shifting and
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
132
interactive applications, given that they may in fact seriously undermine profit
ability. However, with many cable and satellite pay TV providers aggressively de
veloping these applications, in an effort to reduce customer churn, it is perhap
s only a matter of time before traditional broadcasters are forced to address th
e challenge. The ultimate determining factor in whether interactive applications
play a central role in television programming, or are relegated to an inconsequ
ential periphery position, is the needs and wishes of television viewers themsel
ves. Initial data indicates that viewers are less than enthusiastic about intera
cting with their television sets, seemingly supporting the argument that televis
ion is best suited to the passive consumption of linear content. However, as thi
s paper has revealed, viewers do demonstrate an interest in interactive applicat
ions that compliment the emotional and immediate nature of the television medium
. Combined with the more involving viewing experience of High Definition televis
ion, and an increasing awareness among viewers of the capabilities of interactiv
e applications, it is certainly possible to argue that interactive television wi
ll overcome its initial problems to deliver a successful form of television. Fin
ally, it is into this uncertain and rapidly evolving technological environment t
hat program content creators must continue to operate, producing content for tod
ay, as well as for tomorrow. To that end, program makers should maximise the lif
e span of their content by adopting high definition content acquisition, in part
icular digital HD, film, or at the very least, the newly emerging EDTV 24p forma
t.
Jeff Bird 2002, 2003.
133
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Figure 4.25 BroadbandBananas (2002). Figure 4.26 Forrester/iTV Marketer (2001) I
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. Figure 4.35. BroadbandBananas (2001). Figure 4.36 BroadbandBananas (2001). Fig
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DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING:
Perspectives on the Future
Jeffrey Bird
A minor thesis for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master
of Multimedia
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to BroadbandBananas for permitting the use of numerous iTV screendshot
s in this thesis. Also thanks to a number of other organisations/individuals for
providing visual material, including: Sony; the European Broadcasting Union; Ra
y Cordero/Home Theatre Magazine; CEA; Lemac; iTV Marketer; eMarketer; Access Con
ferences; UEC; and TiVo.
SUMMARY Today the international broadcasting community is on the verge of a revo
lution in television content creation and transmission, brought about by a range
of stunning digital technologies. Digital television, High Definition Televisio
n, 24p High Definition production, as well as Interactive TV are all technologie
s that will have far reaching consequences for the television industry, affectin
g program producers, broadcasting entities, advertisers, electronics manufacture
rs, as well as television viewers. It is a technological environment complicated
by legacy issues, competing acquisition and transmission formats, revolutionary
new methods of content creation and delivery, as well as a whole host of emergi
ng content consumption structures that threaten the established order of televis
ion communication. The situation is further complicated by differing approaches
to digital television implementation in different parts of the world, with Europ
e and the United States charting their own digital directions, developing their
own niches of expertise, while also exposing themselves to a range of unique cre
ative and commercial risks. Surrounded by rapid technological change, untried bu
siness models, and uncertain viewer expectations, countries such as Australia at
tempt to navigate their own course in what is fundamentally uncharted territory.
It is also an environment that is politically charged, with a range of media in
terests, both established and aspiring broadcasters, staking out their territory
in the early days of the digital television landscape. It is within these diffi
cult technological, commercial, and political parameters that content program cr
eators must now operate - creating content for today as well as for tomorrow. Ch
apter Two of the paper will provide readers with a basic understanding of both a
nalogue and digital television technology, including a discussion of aspect rati
os, bandwidth, scanning modes and the various competing international transmissi
on formats. This chapter will also provide the reader with a brief overview of t
he potential features that digital television affords, together with a
discussion of multi-channeling and its impact on viewer fragmentation and establ
ished broadcasting business models. Chapter Three will build on the knowledge ga
thered in chapter 2, introducing the reader to High Definition Television broadc
asting, detailing its underlying technology, how it differs from standard defini
tion television, as well as the differing HDTV transmission formats. This chapte
r will also investigate the latest developments in HDTV display technology, the
movement to a mass HDTV consumer market, while addressing viewer choice and expe
ctation. Further discussion will focus on the opposition to HDTV and its impleme
ntation in various broadcasting markets. The chapter will conclude with an overv
iew the new high definition acquisition formats. Chapter Four will first seek to
define Interactive Television, before providing a detailed exploration of the v
arious Interactive Television applications currently in the marketplace. This ex
ploration will also seek to evaluate the relative success of these applications,
providing an insight into viewer expectations, as well as viable business model
s. The chapter will also include a discussion of Australia s controversial Datac
asting legislation. Chapter Five provides content producers with an overview of
the various film and video acquisitions formats that they are likely to confront
during the transition to digital television, highlighting the need to protect c
ontent assets from technological obsolescence.
ABOUT THE WRITER JEFF BIRD Jeff Bird is a film-maker, writer and multimedia crea
tor. After completing a Bachelor s degree in Media Studies (Film & TV) at Deakin
University, Jeff has spent the last 10 years working in the film and television
industries, both in Australia and overseas. This included a number of years wor
king on commercials in Scandinavia as a camera assistant, and a stint in Washing
ton DC working for a documentary production company. Jeff has worked in many dif
ferent capacities, including producing, directing, editing, cinematography, and
writing. his documentary film, Black Gold, Kindred Spirits , which was screened
on ABC TV, won a number of awards, including the Gold Award for best documentar
y at the Worldfest Charleston International Film Festival. Recently, in addition
to completing a Masters degree in Multimedia at Swinburne University, he has wo
rked closely with December Films as a writer/director developing a number of doc
umentary projects.
Swinburne University of Technology July, 2002 (Updated 2003) © 2002, 2003 Jeffre
y Bird
PO Box 455, Cheltenham, Victoria 3192, Australia.
jeffbird@compuserve.com