uhd2808_news 01/09/2015 11:58 Page 8
Who will join
the 4K rush?
Chris Forrester takes a look at the
history of HDTV services and wonders
whether lessons can be learned for
4K/UHD.
he waiting is déjà vu
all over again. We now
know that satellite
operator SES has reserved five
channels for 4K/UHD launches.
We know that Sky Deutschland
has reserved 4K capacity. We
know that SES has signed up a
German shopping channel
(pearl.tv) for transmission in 4K.
We know that a major new
general entertainment channel
will launch at MIPCOM in
October complete with a diverse
and exciting range of 4K
programming with some serious
cash behind what they claim is a
new concept in terms of a
channel. We understand it will be
carried on three important
satellite platforms, including
SES.
And we know that Canal Plus
is testing 4K. This suggests that
SES’s initial five channels are
now more or less identified.
This is all good news. But
what else can viewers expect to
watch on their glorious new 4KUHD displays? To help compile
this list we went back to those
similarly crazy days (and
T
programming in this – then –
new format.
But even then the public were
enthusiastic. By November 2003,
the prices for 27” flat-panel
HDTV sets had “tumbled” to
“just” $900. In October 2003 a
new all-satellite, all-HDTV
service had started from Rainbow
Media over the US, called ‘Voom’,
which sadly went bust a year or
so later, but as for everything
else, doesn’t today’s anxieties
over Ultra-HD sound a little like
what Yogi Berra might say as “It’s
déjà vu all over again”.
Also in 2003, we talked about
consumers buying high-end
Plasma displays (at up to $6,000
each), and predicting that 2004
could see sales in Europe topping
400,000 such units. Again, this
compares with the current
situation where UHD display
sales this year in Europe’s three
major markets (Germany, France
and the UK) will likely top
800,000 units, and perhaps as
many as 1 million in each.
In 2003, Tandberg
Television's then COO Eric
Cooney, explained that it could –
in 2003 – comfortably
handle MPEG-2 HDTV at
10-12 Mb/s, compared
with the expected 20-40
Mb ranges just a few years
ago, and there are other
improvements in the
offing. “In practical terms
what we are saying is that a
satellite transponder can now
comfortably carry three HD
signals. A viewer with a suitable
set or set-top box would
immediately notice a significant
What else can viewers
expect to watch on
their glorious new 4KUHD displays?
months) of speculation in preHDTV, of 2002 when some
people were describing highdefinition TV as “the big yawn”
with – it was claimed – nobody
really interested in making
22 EUROMEDIA UHD Special
improvement in picture quality.”
Given that only a few years ago
broadcasters were paying small
fortunes for analogue
transponder capacity (and still do
for Germany coverage), then
carrying three or four HD
channels on one 36 MHz
transponder is not so expensive,
always provided there was an
audience out there.
Back in the here and now, we
know that there’s an audience for
Ultra-HD. The viewing public are
buying high-end sets at an
impressive rate, despite some
anxieties that these early models
will not deliver ‘true’ 4K.
Certainly only a few models will
be upgradable to handle High
Dynamic Range, let alone
100/120 fps and the muchpraised Wider Colour Gamut that
we will learn more about at IBC
next month.
But there are the first shoots
of broadcasting optimism now
emerging, besides the five
channels anticipated from SES.
First up, by the end of this year,
consumers can start watching 4K
Blu-ray material on newly
available Blu-ray players.
It is also widely announced
that Netflix will widen its 4K
offerings and Amazon Prime is
investing millions in new
streamed programming, much of
which is in 4K. Viewers can only
hope that the much-trailed
decision from Amazon to back a
new very high profile Top Geartype motoring show will be made
in 4K. Meanwhile, both Ne