For most consumers, I think so.

To provide a little background, satellite signals are either encrypted (part of a pay TV package, or “Free to View” which requires a free, or low cost card to decrypt the signal) or unencrypted (or clear, or “Free to Air”). Applying this to Digital Terrestrial Television (commonly known as Freeview in the UK), you could split BBC ONE, The Hits and Sky News into “Free to Air”, and UK Gold into “Pay TV”.

A while ago all of the UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) were “Free to View” on satellite. If you had a Sky subscription, you got them anyway, but if you had Sky equipment and no subscription, you could get a Solus card, which was largely paid for by the BBC. When they removed encryption and went “Free to Air”, they stopped supporting the scheme. Without getting into the whole saga, eventually you couldn’t get a legitimate Free to View card and the only way was to get a cancelled Sky card, or turn to eBay.

In October 2004, Sky introduced Freesat From Sky. The new package was £20 for a FTV card, or £150 for a box, card and installation. A year later, the BBC and ITV announced Freesat, and some time afterwards made their own channels FTA. In the meantime, tens of thousand (if not more) viewers in the UK have been watching FTA television on boxes supplied by neither Sky or Freesat, but manufacturers like Technomate and by using cheap kits from Aldi and Lidl.

There’s no doubt that Freesat is targeting consumers who want a service similar to Freeview, but without anything to do with Sky. There’s a few interesting points though;

• Channel 4 is now available FTA, but Channel 4 HD is still only available to Sky HD customers.
• five is not available on Freesat.
• ITV HD will be available on Freesat, but not Sky, and will only be available via the red button when watching ITV.
• Sky News isn’t on the EPG, even though it’s a Free to Air channel on satellite.
• The only radio stations on the EPG are all from the BBC. The three national licences - Classic FM, talkSport and Virgin Radio - are all missing.

The line-up is a little disappointing at the moment (although most of the channels, like Sky News or Planet Rock are on satellite, FTA), and it’s a little reminder of the days of 1998 when you keyed in 103 on your Sky Digibox and were told “Press ’tv’ and ‘3′ to view ITV”. Personally I’d hang on and see how it plays out, what the on-demand services are like, what channels are added and what firmware changes are made before ringing round to find a STB.

At the moment, I’m still drawn to the Technomate TM 6900 HDas my next satellite box, but once on demand, HD and more channels on the EPG filter through, it’ll be an excellent purchase for anyone without adequate Freeview coverage or simply wanting HD. I fully understand the reasons for using an independent programme information stream, but it would be nice if we could enjoy what we have with European TV stations (like RTL, or Das Erste) and get full, comprehensive EPG data on any DVB-S equipment we care to use.

Last night I saw The Digg Reel - a video from Revision3 which looks at the most popular videos on social news site, Digg.

The source of the videos is credited, but often just as YouTube.com or Break.com. I’ve noticed this in several places, especially TV news channels. Last year BBC News 24 showed the spoof iPhone advert from Late Night with Conan O’Brien (inexplicably removed from YouTube by NBC, despite the huge popularity of that skit) twice, yet only credited one showing, and that was “from YouTube.com”. You could even hear the audience laughter at the end of the video as it was shown on News 24.

Sky wouldn’t dream of waiting for someone to upload a BBC interview, and then download it and credit YouTube. Infact, when dealing in their own content the BBC and Sky clearly credit each other, down to the title of the show. Yet news outlets appear fairly happy to use and credit YouTube videos rather than the original source.

Radio 4’s PM is guilty of doing the same. Last year they used clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, again including the audience laughter, but removed Stewart and didn’t credit the show. It wouldn’t have been inconceivable for the BBC to get the same clips which the TDS crew did of Hillary Clinton…

April marks changes for the UK’s two main news channels; BBC News 24 and Sky News. Sky refreshed their graphics, and the BBC have been gradually introducing a new look to most of their outputs. I’ll cover those two (and CNN, France 24 et al) over the next week or so.

BBC World

In recent years the BBC’s international news channel, BBC World, has reflected the graphics and style of BBC News 24. Indeed, this week BBC News 24 has been using the BBC World set between 9.30pm and 10pm and I suspect most won’t have noticed the small differences in the neighbour studio (the background, the silver border on the large screens, a slightly smaller desk, etc).

BBC World: March 23rd, 2005

Whilst typically seen in hotels around the world, BBC World is also available in the UK via a Hotbird satellite. The typical Sky equipment is capable of displaying the channel (if the dish is aligned accordingly), and the kits often sold in Maplin and Aldi allow users to be watching the news channel within minutes, completely legitimately.

BBC World: April 30th, 2006

Some slight updates to the graphics here. The WORLD has become bigger (in terms of this logo, not in general) and the ticker is simply black and white. The headline also becomes thinner, as will be shown in an upcoming post on News 24.

BBC World: January 23rd, 2008

The current (for now) graphics for BBC World. It’s interesting to note that BBC World does not use a clock, yet the BBC World Service (and World Service English News) does mention the time (according to GMT) several times an hour.

The BBC has revealed the new look of BBC Three, and the orange blobs are set to go.

Credit: BBC. But I captured it all on my own!

According to research carried out by the BBC, viewers think that they’re “cold and shouty”. Personally, whilst I never really warmed to them, they’re unique and interesting. I think the background is a little cold, but you couldn’t accuse the channel of not having a personality.

Credit: BBC Press Office

Being honest, I’m not keen on the new branding. All I’ll say is that the channel gets a really hard time from the DCMS select committee and this’ll do nothing to help. ;-)

And it’s great. I just found a copy of the Guardian from August in a bag I’m packing at the moment and was thinking about the design they recently introduced. Personally I like the size, and find the fonts easy to read even at 11pm when my eyes are tired. Comparing it to other broadsheets, I think they’ve got it just right. It’s also a co-incidence that just this morning I was thinking the Guardian site had a different front page to a lot of the site, and comment areas appear in three very different styles.

I check out the Organ Grinder blog on media every day and love what they’ve done with it. I think the way the titles of the posts are done is better - now loading with no delay. The categories down the left hand side are very clear and tidy, although I’m not sure how well the red links on grey down the right hand side work. The comments are now formatted in the familiar style from Comment is Free, and they’re much easier to read as a result.

The formatting of posts is very nice indeed. Whilst the trend is to add buttons for the major social sites, or a share button to open a box with dozens of buttons, they’ve stuck with just Digg and del.icio.us, which are certainly the tools I use most for blog posts. Props for plain text links too. There’s also a link to see what’s being said about a post (”Conversations about this post”). This is very worth while when you gather almost 7,000 diggs on a blog post like Charlie Brooker’s I Hate Macs.

I believe the Guardian are doing a lot of work at the moment on the website and look forward to seeing how the rest looks. I’m a big fan of the new Times Online site and think the broadsheets have responded very well with the challenges of putting together sites (see Independent, Telegraph, New York Times, USA Today) which look great, have some familiarity with the paper edition and innovate with new types of content like blogs and podcasts.

Last week on the MediaTalk podcast (look at that smooth segue), Emily Bell mentioned the video player on the Telegraph site. I’ve not been the quickest to adopt viewing these channels, but the Telegraph video player is so well done I’ve gone back a few times. It’s worth noting how these flash players contrast with traditional Microsoft and Real delivery. Just look at what CNN are doing and compare it to the “beta” player from MSNBC. I find Flash is often quick and convenient, especially as it doesn’t interfere with anything else I’m doing. In Vista when I watch the BBC video content I lose sound, the screen goes black for a few seconds and it all comes back with the basic theme. Close the window and the same thing happens again.

I think this extends past a technology choice on the website. The video podcasts from ABC and CNN are very clean and they clearly understand the differences between viewing online and on TV. MSNBC only make available audio highlights from shows like Countdown with Keith Olbermann, even though the clips are incredibly popular online on YouTube or other video sites.

It’s a really exciting time for online content. When ABC and CNN are moving forward, it still seems strange that the BBC would move backwards.

I guess I always knew about CNET, but never really thought to go there to read tech news. Recently I based two purchases (printer and camera) on their in-depth editors reviews and I’ve been really impressed.

A few weeks ago James Cridland posted about Buzz Out Loud, a podcast from CNET. There’s a lot of tech podcasts out there and I normally take my cue from Digg Podcasts when looking for something new. It’s been one of the top ones for a long time and I still hadn’t listened to it.

Anyway - it’s great. I love the format and the presenters are very easy to listen to. On Wednesday for the iPod announcements they had a stand in presenter (Jasmine France, from MP3 Insider) who gave a really balanced view to the announcements, taking into account different media players on the market.

Another show I’ve been listening to but haven’t enjoyed perhaps as much is This Week in Tech (TWiT). It’s a very good quality show with superb audio quality, and I recommend checking it out.

Revision3 do a lot of video podcasts, but I’ve been enjoying Systm the most. They get into some fairly technical details, there’s no crazy camera work and it’s very easy to get into.

For a long time I wished there was more technology programming on TV. But now I find myself watching less of shows like The Gadget Show when this “new” type of media is more in-depth and a lot more relevant, especially when developments are rapid (such as the possible inclusion of Bluetooth in the iPod touch). CNET and TWiT are providing a lot of high quality content with good presenters, and there’s many more specialised shows in-between.

Just a few quick observations. I’ve heard a lot of tech podcasts, but don’t remember yet hearing a UK tech podcast. I’m sure there’s a magazine doing one (like Stuff or T3), but I’ve not even seen an independent UK tech podcast. Some of these podcasts have taken the idea of doing a radio show and applied it to a podcast, but they’ve brought in techniques used on talk radio and gone a bit nuts, like some very over the top processing.

And it’s only a small niggle, but I rarely hear talk about Vista or Dell machines - there’s a real emphasis on Apple products, and in the video podcasts everyone has a MacBook. I mean, GarageBand and Final Cut are the business for putting these shows together and they’re great products, but a bit of Linux or Windows love wouldn’t go unnoticed. I’ll post more about choosing an Apple or desktop PC for work over the weekend.

The BBC vodcast trial is coming to an end. Newsnight, Breakfast, the Ten O’Clock News and STORYFix will no longer be available to download as a file - for now.

I love audio podcasts and have been downloading them for a few years, but only recently have started to get into video podcasts (or “vodcasts”). Some traditional media outlets seem more at ease with them than others, but that they’re being produced on a daily or weekly basis is more than encouraging.

The BBC has been doing them as a trial for a little while and they’ve been very good, in my opinion. At 10.30pm the last thing I’m ready to consume is a news programme and the ability to download highlights and watch them on my terms - i.e. on VLC Media Player, under Ubuntu Linux, at 8.45pm on Saturday without an internet connection - felt not so much liberating, but almost exciting as a feel of the future of this sort of content.

Watching Newsnight vodcast on Ubuntu Linux

I’ve watched Newsnight, Click and other BBC News content on a variety of computers, ISPs and speeds over the last year or two and often recall the video clip having either large artifacts, a garbled section of audio or most annoyingly, some buffering. For me, video podcasts just feel right.

It’s a shame that the trial has to end, although I quite accept the reasons for doing a trial and the need to evaluate costs and impact. Considering that even the more reluctant providers have started video podcasts, that BBC content always rates highly on the iTunes chart and a relationship and following had started to build for these downloads, it seems odd to cut everyone off. I rarely watch Newsnight live, but when I do it’s from start to end. I love the reports and the interviews, and now that it’s been made available like this I want more.

I know it’s available to stream online, and the week on Newsnight is on BBC News 24 at 0.30am on Saturday, but personally neither of those are really convenient or comfortable places to enjoy the programme.

Mark Barlex is the on demand editor at BBC News, and in a post on the Editors Blog titled File not found has described the end of the trial. It sounds like some podcasts didn’t do as well as others. Simon Dickson sums it up when he says “downbeat”.

I’ve been meaning to write up a post on the BBC Editors blog for a while now, but I thought I’d mention this as it’ll take place tomorrow.

According to Simon Waldman on a post titled ‘Realtime blogging‘;

If it works, it might give you a fly-on-the-wall insight into how a continuous news channel operates: how and why we reach our decisions on editorial and production issues; the last-minute changes in running orders; which stories merit ditching all other news to ‘roll’; how we react when things don’t go entirely according to plan (which, since you ask, is rather more often than is good for one’s health).

Live or realtime blogging has been a regular feature on some weblogs for a while. Blogging Juggernaut Engadget has been doing it at events and launches for a while. Media Guardian have been doing it for TV shows like The Apprentice and this week the Radio Festival, although those updates are hourly rather than every few minutes.

The BBC’s efforts around blogging are admirable, although I think there could be a little more range on the Editor’s Blog as far as authors and issues are concerned. I’ll post again after the realtime blog, with a few notes on the whole live blogging concept.

Channel 4 have this morning been awarded the licence to launch ten new stations on DAB. The group, headed by Channel 4, includes Emap, Sky, UTV, Carphone Warehouse, Crysalis and UBC. This is great news for DAB - the Channel 4 bid included some really interesting stations and should bring some more variety to the platform, as well as some competition to Radio 4.

There was only one other bid, from National Grid Wireless (NGW) who have a big hand transmission networks in the UK.

Channel 4 will operate three stations themselves, with Disney joining to launch a children’s channel. Disney and GCap parted ways earlier this year which resulted in the closure of Capital Disney on digital platforms.

The range of stations really interests me - it’s just what DAB needs, in my opinion. Stations include adult album format Original from CanWest MediaWorks who have stations in Bristol and the South Coast, rolling news from Sky, a format around “news, views and entertainment” from UTV who own TalkSport and some talk formats from Channel 4. I would guess that Closer might be a jukebox service, similar to Q and heat which Emap already run, and that Virgin Radio Viva would be similar to Virgin Radio Groove in that there’s no presenters, but it’d be nice if there was a DJ led show or two, and news bulletins. Here’s the full list, from Ofcom;

According to media reports, the BBC’s Maida Vale studio is set to close. It’s where many sessions have been performed for programmes such as John Peel’s, and still are for many BBC Radio shows. In the last year or two The Scissor Sisters, Orson and KT Tunstall have given great sets for Radio 2, and Zane Lowe has hosted his Radio 1 show from the studios many times. Whilst seeing any iconic building close or change can be sad, this line appears on most articles;

“The BBC are yet to announce whether the studio will be replaced or not.”

The Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House has just reopened (having been closed in 2002) and is now home to at least one weekly show which used to be at the Drill Hall. The PDF seems to support its suitability for live music gigs, it seats more people and is in a good location, so it’s not all bad if the theatre can accommodate those gigs and rehearsals.

Further investigation seems to show that a decision is yet to be made, but a spokesperson has spoken of the technical limits in the 21st Century with the converted ice rink.