Freeview HD scrambling: Ofcom says no—so far
Ofcom has published (PDF) its response to the BBC’s proposal to “scramble” (i.e., compress, but with a licensing regime controlling legal access to the necessary decoding tables) part of the Service Information tables broadcast along with BBC HD on Freeview HD.
While a final decision has yet to be made, Ofcom is keen to provide “early clarity”, by saying:
Until we reach a final decision on the licence amendment the HD service information broadcast on Multiplex B should be provided in a free to air format. If Huffman compression is used then the related tables should be made available to receiver manufacturers without the need for a licence for Huffman look-up tables from the BBC.
In other words, “if you must scramble the EIT, you must make the means of unscrambling it publicly available”.
Graham Plumb stated back in September, and followed up in October:
But a form of content management is required to enable us to launch Freeview HD to audiences in early 2010
My questions—which still remain largely unanswered—centre on this point:
…if introducing this is critical to the launch schedule of Freeview HD services, why is it only being discussed now (at what can only charitably be called the eleventh hour)?
Have rights-holders been told they can expect it to be in place in time for launch, despite it being contingent upon Ofcom’s (and presumably, the Trust’s) approval?
If not, then what do the contracts for BBC HD on Freesat say? (broad terms, we don’t need to breach “commercial confidentiality”)
Alternatively, is it the case that the content licensing agreements for BBC HD currently ONLY cover Freesat, despite everybody knowing perfectly well when Freesat was launched that Freeview HD was due to launch late 2009/early 2010?
Bear in mind that Ofcom still hasn’t reached a final decision, and it’d be somewhat presumptuous of the BBC to have an expectation that it would go one way or the other.
I don’t attribute this to malice, incidentally, but it’s either an almighty balls-up, or the public message doesn’t quite tally with the reality of the situation.
