NBC suspending HD broadcasts for war

[oflaherty]

NBC just sent the following:

"Effective immediately, prime time programs normally available in native high definition will be fed as upconverted standard definition on the HD service UFN. (until furter notice)

We are taking this step to ensure that Special Reports from NBC News are available to viewers of the NBC HD service."

I don't know how long "until further notice" will be.
---
Sean at TMJ

[Joseph S]

Sean,

I know this isn't your decision or even one made at Ch. 4, but I think NBC corporate should hear that back about this terrible decision. If people want to watch the war coverage, there are plenty of other options and if I ever want to I'm going to get this news from ABC or PBS for the time being. This does nothing to help NBC but further annoy the viewers of their HD shows. I edited your name and posted just the bulletin at AVS seeing as this is a national issue NBC just created.
Thanks for the update.

Since the boycott list is longer, here are the only stations I'm watching as the boycott grows.
ABC HD
PBS 10.1 when HD
HBO HD when OAR
SHOHD
Wasn't it just a month or so ago that we had upwards of 7 HD shows available simultaneoushly here on Sun?

[oflaherty]

I'm not happy about the temporary lack of HD programming... but I do see a bright spot..

For too long many people, including many broadcasters, have treated the DTV stations as just an experiment.

If you run an experimental station you only broadcast a few hours a day, you don't bother to run at full power and you don't put up a regular broadcast antenna. An experimental station runs demo loops, repeatedly shows a moving lighthouse, and doesn't bother to fill the local commercial breaks in network shows. An experimental station doesn't have to run weather warnings, or school closings, or special reports on the nation going to war.

If the digital stations are going to become regular broadcast TV channels they will have to develop all the tools the old analog stations have. That includes HD news and weather crawls over HD programs, HD commercials and eventually HD newscasts.

There is also a legal obligation for all FCC licensed over the air stations to provide news and public service programming.

So I see this as an admission by NBC that they are not properly equipped to provide instant news bulletins, and bottom of the screen crawls on their HD network.

But that also means that NBC no longer considers digital TV as just some experiment.  They apparently feel that digital viewers should not be ignored and must be give the same news and emergency information that analog viewers get.

That's my editorial for today. It's my own opinion, not necessarily the view of WTMJ or NBC.
----
Sean at TMJ

[Tom Snyder]

Thanks for the heads up...

[Todd Wiedemann]

Many thanks to Sean O'Flaherty for posting here and to our own Joseph S who posted over at AVS Forum here, breaking the news nationally !!

Thanks much, guys !