CNN International to launch on Freeview

Finally a decent station, and a much needed alternative to the BBC and Sky.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/10/nuts_tv_dropped_from_freeview.html

The article implies it will air 24 hours a day, though Nuts only aired a few hours from 9pm.

EDIT: Digital Spy say it'll be from 9pm - 1am.

I presume it's still in 4:3 though, any news about CNNI going WS?

None that I've heard. AIUI CNN HD is only HD 16:9 in its NY studios - with injects from Washington DC (but not the Washington DC studio) also being 16:9. AIUI the Atlanta and DC studios are still 4:3 SD?

Purely my opinion here, but I think the current CNNI sets in Atlanta, London and Hong Kong look like they've been designed with HD in mind, so my guess is that CNNI is working towards it, but we will probably not see an HD version of CNNI for at least a year.

I just wish they would broadcast in 16:9. I think they use those cameras.

The issue is not just the cameras and the studio and the production infrastructure - it is the distribution infrastructure as well. Al Jazeera English is produced in a mix of 16:9 HD and 16:9 SD but is broadcast in 4:3 SD (with a 14:9 letterboxed image) to guarantee that it can be carried on all platforms, some of which don't support 16:9 broadcasting properly.

When you consider how international CNNi is - and how many 4:3 and analogue networks (cable in some countries is still 4:3 analogue, and quite a few satellite platforms are 4:3 only) they still serve, you can understand why they don't duplicate their feeds in 4:3 and 16:9 - and can't switch entirely to 16:9 distribution yet.

Deutsche Welle has gone 16:9 this year - and it took them months to get their aspect ratio right on Sky Digital...

But would it really be that complicated for AJE or CNN to provide a choice of feeds for international networks? Those that support only 4:3 can take the 4:3 one, and those that support 16:9 can take the 16:9 one.

It seems particularly strange in the case of AJE which has invested in HD production that it's only available in SD in 14:9 letterbox.

Chances are it would double their distribution costs - as instead of distributing a single feed (of each region if they have regional variations) they'd need to distribute two - to provide a choice to those platform operators who re-broadcast CNN.

In some cases CNN may well handle their own uplink (or pay a 3rd party to) and this in turn may be used as the source for other platforms re-broadcasting.

Given that news networks are not cash cows - these costs are non-marginal.



Yep - but understandable in distribution cost terms.