Local News In HD?

[Scott Zsori]

I'm curious if any of the local stations are working on getting their nightly news into HD?  I know they'd have to do some major upgrades on their equipment, but you'd think they'd be rushing to be the first local channel to do so.  I know I'd switch to a different channel if it were to offer the news in HD (currently a 12 fan).  Has anyone heard of any of the stations working on this, and what would the barriers be?

[StarvingForHDTV]

Originally posted by Scott Zsori
what would the barriers be?

Cost.  Money doesn't grow on trees.

[Tom Snyder]

WRAL in Raleigh and KOMO in Seattle I think are the only 2 doing it... and they did it as pioneers. No real rush on the part of many (or any) more stations to do it since.

Not only do you need cameras in the studio, but you need the production equipment... and if you wanna do it right, you're talking HD cameras in the field for live shots, too (and the microwave equipment to beam it back to the station)... megabuck investment with no real return.

[foxeng]

WRAL reportely spent 10 million dollars to convert from SD news to HD news.

Not too many stations are willing to spend like that just for pretty pictures with little to no return on investment right now.

[Matt Heebner]

Yea, but isn't the owner of the station a real HD nut ? Like on a Mark Cuban type level ?

Matt

[foxeng]

Originally posted by Matt Heebner
Yea, but isn't the owner of the station a real HD nut ? Like on a Mark Cuban type level ?

Matt

Yes, in the sense he is into tech, but he doesn't have Mark Cuban's money. He has to use what he gets out of his companies to pay for it, not out of his pocket like Mark Cuban.

WRAL is the only station out of the 6 or 7 he owns that he has gone all out for HD. The rest are just like every other DTV station in the country with most being low power stations and only offering HD via the stations network. He does offer HDNet on his other Raleigh station (WRAZ) and on the Charlotte station (WWWB), but both are low power and WWWB doesn't offer news.

I know this first hand since I can see most of the stations he owns from my house. I live between Charlotte and Raleigh.

[John L]

I'm sure once financing and HDTV broadcast equipment is more affordable, one of the local Milwaukee TV stations either ch. 4,  6, or 12 will go for it to make sure they are FIRST in offering local news in HDTV.  But doing so would have to mean making this jump will have to be profitable for the station.

-John L.

[720p]

I don't expect many regional stations to start broadcasting their News programs in HD until long after the major cable news networks (CNN, FNC, MSNBC) start broadcasting in HD.  And that IMO, can't happen soon enough.