Consultant (and former PBS exec) Michael Soper contacted both DirecTV and Dish about carriage of PBS station HD programming and got noncommittal answers. This is from DirecTV's response:
... While I do not have any information specifically about PBS in your area, we do value programming like this and realize PBS in HD is important to our customers. Unfortunately, due to limits in bandwidth, we are not able to offer all of the local channels we provide to the Salt Lake area in HD. ...
Link: Rare Medium. He also did an earlier post on this topic. I agree with Michael, of course, but we in public television could be doing something to make this happen much faster. Currently, most public television stations are still broadcasting the PBS HD feed, not an HD version of our main channel. Therefore, the two main satellite companies would need to set aside large chunks of spectrum for 7x24 programming differentiated only by station IDs. More stations need to do HD versions of their main analog channel with all the localization (acquisitions, local programming, underwriting, and pledge breaks) that implies -- that is, HD when it's available and upconverted SD when it's not -- not just to make satellite carriage more attractive but because their "main" program channel looks pretty pathetic next to their HD channel and that of their commercial colleagues. PBS is moving to help stations do this, but I fear we'll be missing out on early adopter interest if we don't move fast. For my stations, that means not waiting for PBS. --Dennis
This is the path to the Networks going direct as well. IF PBS is first, then why not ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. It simplifies the world and eliminates the middleman (aka the local affiliates). The Networks set up direct-to-home via cable and satellite and the broadcasters slowly fade away, ending their hold on the spectrum.
Posted by: Don Moore | Tuesday, 30 October 2007 at 06:31