Andrew's Inner Sanctum

There’s been a lot going on with digital TV in the last few weeks. There has also been a lot of questions I’ve been asked about certain aspects of the switchover and why certain things have occured. So I thought I’d answer a few questions that I’ve been asked.

1. Why did the TV networks get rid of their high definition channels and replace them with new channels? Why didn’t they just add a new channel and keep the existing ones?

There is legislation about how many TV channels each network is allowed to broadcast. The current rules are that each network can only have 2 Standard Definition (SD) and 1 High Definition (HD) channel with exception of the ABC & SBS who can have more (ABC currently have 3SD and 1HD). This means that to launch their 3rd multi-channel, one existing one had to go. They also must keep their main channel in SD because it needs to be viewable by people switching from analog TV to an SD digital box. Their second SD channel was already being used (7Two and Go!) so their HD channel was the only one left to replace & because it was only a duplicate of the main channel in SD – it made sense to replace it with new content. So that’s why the HD simulcasts have been replaced with new channels. This may change in the next few years (definitely by 2013) but that’s the limitations at the moment.

2. Why is there 5 channel 7 stations. I thought they were only allowed to have 3? (same case with there being 2 One HDs and 2 ABC1s)

That’s a concept called Logical Channel Numbers (LCN). Each station in their signal broadcasts send out a list of numbers that they would like to assign their channels to when you scan your digital TV or set top box. This is so that every TV has the channels on the same numbers so that you can switch from one TV to another and still find all the channels (fixing a big problem from the days of analog TV and especially important when you’ve got around 20 channels to keep track of). The thing about this is – each channel can be assigned more than one LCN so while a network might only broadcast 3 channels, the network might decide to use 5 numbers, with the same channel on several different numbers. They’re kind of like shortcuts on your computer, you can have several shortcuts pointing to the same program. Channel 7 has a major problem with this. They have Channel Seven on LCN 7, 70 and 71 (labelled 7Digital on 7 + 70 & 7Digital 1 on 71) and then 7Two on 72 and 7Mate on 73. Same with ABC1 being on 2 and 21 and One HD on 1 and 11 (although 11 will be used for channel Eleven next year so that won’t be a duplicate from next year). You can safely delete the extra numbers if you wish (that’s what I’ve done, cleans it up a bit).

3. Why is Channel 10 showing the Commonwealth Games all day when it’s on One HD and One Digital anyway? (Supplementary Question: Why don’t Network Ten put the content normally on One HD onto One Digital?)

There’s some legal obligations as to how networks can use their digital multi-channels at the moment. For sport they’re called the “Anti-Siphoning Laws”. Although Network Ten would love to simply dump their Commonwealth Games coverage onto One HD and continue normal programming on Ten – they legally can’t do that. Until the laws are updated (and these specific laws may not be updated until 2013) they legally have to broadcast all major sporting events on their main channels at the same time if they wish to broadcast it on their digital multi-channels. This is because not everyone in the country has access to these multi-channels quite yet so if they put major events onto digital multi-channels then some people would miss out. So that explains why the Commonwealth Games are on Ten, One HD and One Digital. I personally think though that Network Ten should have changed One Digital to show alternate content, because the Commonwealth Games are already available on One HD and Ten. Maybe they can’t due to technology reasons (although they will have to next year when they launch Eleven since One Digital is going way, but One HD is staying) or maybe they simply didn’t want to. It just seemed a bit strange

4. Why does GEM keep switching to Channel 9 when the NRL and Cricket are on (and 7Mate during the AFL)?

Well there are requirements for each channel to broadcast a certain amount of sport in HD each year and when they were simply simulcasts of the main channel, those requirements were met, but these new multi-channels show content that’s separate to the main channel, but they still have to show the sport in HD, so they simply switch to 9 (or 7) to broadcast the event in HD. In Perth and Adelaide where there are delays but they still wish to show the sport live, they simply keep simulcasting the main channel until they reach the correct time to switch back into normal programming.

If I get any more questions from people, then I’ll add them here!

This weekend was a big weekend in the TV world. Two new free to air digital channels launched this weekend bringing the total number of channels to 16 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (if you include the community stations). The new channels now available if you rescan your digital set top box or TV will be 7Mate on 73 and Gem on 90. 7Mate launched at 6pm on Saturday 25th September right after the AFL Grand Final and replaced 7 HD Digital which was just a high definition copy of 7 Digital. Gem launched 12 hours later at 6am Sunday 26th of September and replaced Nine High Definition which was just a high definition copy of Nine Digital. The final channel that we’re waiting for is Network Ten’s new channel called Eleven (to replace One Digital which is a Standard Definition copy of One HD) in January 2011 and then our TV guides will stay fairly stable until 2013 when the digital switchover occurs and the networks are allowed to start more channels (and also probably when SBS will launch SBS 3 and 4).

This is a great thing for Australia and for those of us who have never been able to afford Pay TV, because we now get a very broad choice of TV channels for the one time cost of a new TV set or Set Top Box. The only issue is, for adults who have only been used to 5-6 TV channels, all these new channels are rather confusing even slightly overwhelming.

So I’ve decided to put together a document that you can print out and put near the TV set which simply lists the channels, their associated numbers and a brief description of what the channel is about. It lists One HD, ABC1, SBS One, 7 Digital, Nine Digital, Ten Digital, Eleven, ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS HD, SBS Two, 31 Digital, 7TWO, 7Mate, Gem and Go! The only thing you may need to do is write under Eleven in pencil that this channel does not start until January 2011 and then rub it out when it commences broadcast. The other thing to note about this guide is that it was created for Brisbane viewers. That means that the community station will be different in each city (TVS in Sydney, C31 in Melbourne & Adelaide and CTV in Perth). Darwin will receive Gem and Go! from October 4th (but still not OneHD) and other regional areas will these new channels on different schedules. Most of Regional Australia will not receive Eleven in January 2011 due to technical upgrades that will need to occur in these areas.

In 2000, Channel 7 ran one of the most unique promotions I’ve even seen for TV. Most TV promotions require you to call in, or remember a promo code or something similar to that, but this one actually required you to stick something to your TV. The promotion was called The DOT. Here is one of the packets they came in and the DOT itself.

The Packaging Of "The Dot"

The Dot

Basically how this thing worked was that at a specific time each night (usually during a popular show), in the bottom right corner where there is currently a 7 watermark, a watermark the same shape as the DOT appeared and at the start of the program, Channel 7 would tell viewers to stick the DOT to their telly (it was sticky on the back) over the watermark, and continue watching Channel 7 for the entire hour (no changing Channels) and this process would charge and activate the DOT. After that you simply put it back in it’s packet and then sent it away and hoped you were a winner. 10 years ago (I was 7) I must have decided to keep one of these DOTs as a momento and I found it the other day as I was looking through my stuff. I was also disappointed to see not a single mention of it on the internet, so that’s why I decided to blog about it now!

I’m getting excited, because ABC News 24 is nearly here. Since I first started watching TV, I remember the 6 channels our TV set could pick up: ABC (2), Seven (7), Nine (9), Ten (10), SBS (28) and Briz 31 (31). Some of the shows on these channels were OK, but a lot of it was reality TV, because that’s what the people like apparently. I was always jellious of the people who had Foxtel, because they had access to stacks of Channels, such as Sky News and the Discovery Channel.

Well Digital TV is set to change this finally. With the ABC launching it’s 24 hour news channel soon, free to air TV will have just made a massive jump in catching up to the content of pay TV, and Sky News will likely be crapping their pants at this moment. One HD has made little impact on Fox Sports, because covering sporting matches involves rights and other legal messes, but covering news can be done by anyone, and the ABC are probably the best in the country at this. I also suspect other channels on Foxtel will be watching the extra channels that Seven, Nine and Ten are planning to launch within the next year or so. Even SBS has 2 more channels planned, and the ABC has some ideas about broadcasting ABC5 and ABC6 in the next decade.

So at the moment we have moved from this

• ABC (Channel 2)
• Seven (Channel 7)
• Nine (Channel 9)
• Ten (Channel 10)
• SBS (Channel 28)
• Briz 31 Or Equivilent Community Station (Channel 31)

To this:

• One HD (Channel 1 & 11) – 24 Hour Sports Channel
• ABC1 (Channel 2 & 21)
• SBS One (Channel 3 & 31)
• Seven Digital (Channel 7 & 71)
• Nine Digital (Channel 9 & 91)
• Ten Digital (Channel 10)
• One Digital (Channel 12) – Non HD Feed of One HD (Plans To Replace This Channel With 10′s Second Multichanel)
• ABC HD (Channel 20) – Offically Decommissioned July 7 2010 To Make Way For ABC News 24
• ABC2 (Channel 22)
• ABC3 (Channel 23) – Dedicated Children’s Programming Channel
• ABC News 24 (Channel 24) – 24 Hour News & Current Affairs Channel
• SBS Two (Channel 32)
• SBS 3 (Channel 33) – Currently Broadcasting SBS One (Plans For SBS3 Coming Soon)
• SBS 4 (Channel 34) – Currently Broadcasting SBS One (Plans For SBS4 Coming Soon)
• 31 Digital (Channel 44) – Brisbane’s Community TV Channel (Known As TVS in Sydney & C31 In Melbourne)
• 7 HD (Channel 70) – High Definition Version Of Seven Digital With Some Unique Content)
• 7TWO (Channel 72)
• 7 Digital 3 – Currently Broadcasting Seven Digital (Plans For 7′s Second Multichannel Coming Soon)
• Nine High Definition (Channel 90) – High Definition Version Of Nine Digital
• Go! (Channel 99) – Youth Channel With Some Older Shows Too!

Red = Decommisioned

Blue = Currently Broadasting Another Channel’s Feed & Plans To Use That Channel In The Future

That’s around 20 channels to pick from within the next few years (there’s about 16 at the current moment) and with digital and how it works, there could be many more channels if the networks wished to add them. The same thing is happening in the radio space too with Digital Radio (I’ll write about them soon hopefully), but it’s still a fair way off before the analog signals get switched off there. Foxtel aren’t going away anywhere, they still have the stronghold on sports coverage, commercial free movies and overseas content, but news is going to be a tough one to sell now. It’s exciting stuff, bring on the complete digital TV switchover in 2013!

Today I made my first steps towards a Media Centre PC. AC Nielsen gave me a $100 gift card which I needed to use before April 2010, so I decided to buy something I probably wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. So I purchased a $99 Pinnacle Dazzle *TV 71e stick from Dick Smith. This stick doesn’t work on my laptop yet. The Release Candidate version of Windows 7 and Windows Media Center mustn’t support my stick, because it works fine on the final version of Windows 7 on other laptops in the house. So next week when I install Windows 7 Professional onto my system, It will work.

I’m also going to buy two 500GB hard drives and this will mean I can record and store shows on it. My sister wants me to record Ugly Betty and Gossip Girl (I can hear Caitlin and Ashlee cheering from here at the sound of those words ) and then using Windows 7 Homegroups, share it directly to her Windows Media Center.

This is also the first time I’ll have digital TV in my house, access to 7Two, Go! and ABC2.  The other final thing I have to do is buy an extension aerial cable so I can use the roof aerial, because the little tiny one doesn’t give me the coverage sadly.

So yea – I’m excited, I’m basically getting a TiVO for $120 instead of $699 – screw that Freeview and your non recording ways! As Uncle Leo says “Screw You!”