Don't expect Imparja HD & 9Life anytime soon

[Smacca]

Spoke to a wonderful lady from Imparja over the phone this morning about Nine's plans to simulcast HD and launch 9Life and when Imparja will follow suit. Well, it's not looking good. The commercial channels on the Eastern VAST service are bound by legislation and funded entirely by the government. Even to this day, the satellite bandwidth costs are shouted by the government. So you can imagine that any adjustment or increase to the bandwidth would be a timely process. Considering Imparja and WIN have only known about Nine's bold plans for 2 weeks, there is little chance anything new will launch on VAST for Eastern-states viewers for some time.

Another interesting point about the requirements Imparja must meet to launch Nine's new channels is that they will not only need to launch 2 x 9Life channels and 2 x 9Gem SD channels, but also a new Imparja HD channel for North zone. Legislation requires their primary and SD channels to be split into North and South, while their HD channel can be used in both zones. However, simulcasting Imparja in HD means it's a primary channel in HD which must be split into North and South.

Imparja HD South (formerly Gem HD)
Imparja HD North *new*
9Gem SD South *new*
9Gem SD North *new*
9Life South *new*
9Life North *new*

That's 5 new channels required. The costs are stacking up. Do you think in this current environment of reach rules being relaxed and the metro networks pushing ahead with content delivery innovation, the government will want to increase their subsidy on VAST?

[Smacca]

After mulling over the info for a while, I reckon Imparja could reduce the costs. Take into account how new VAST is, how tight the Freeview specifications are for satellite end user equipment, and how new all the end user set-top boxes and integrated TV's must be in Imparja's terrestrial areas. Surely they could get away with not having Imparja simulcast in both SD and HD. They could have 9Gem, 9Go and 9Life as single SD services covering both zones and launching Imparja HD splits for North and South. Minimal impact on bandwidth and primary channels are still split to please viewers and advertisers.

Imparja HD South
Imparja HD North
9Gem
9Go!
9Life

[gordon_s1942]

I thought VAST broadcast all channels in HD anyway irrespective of the program material but even if not, certain Lifestyle/Sitcoms like the 'make me sick' Kadashians etc arent worth the battery power used to transmit them in SD let alone HD !!

It is easy for us to be critical and whinge and bellyache (like having Melbourne's TEN News instead of Sydney's) but after reading Smacca's informative postings, theres a hell of a lot more to the Pie than just the case its cooked in.

Primarily it all boils down to Dollars and Cents and I dont think many will disagree that VAST with its Australia Wide coverage, availability and number of Channels is a huge improvement over Aurora which itself was better than the old BMac system that was better than a crackily static affected Radio in years past.

Although it goes against my claimed Scottish ancestor and simple meanness, IF it would go to the running and improving of VAST, grudgingly I would support a license fee to use it.

[beerman]

It will certainly be interesting to watch this space as EASB will not want to fall behind in the program offerings as this begins to differentiate the metro and regional content offerings. VAST was suppose to close that gap.

[Smacca]

WIN WA is advertising WIN HD as "coming soon" during their ad breaks. You'd want to hope it's not a mistake and they really have acquired extra VAST bandwidth for it!

[gordon_s1942]

On all their channels ?
Because they way they control advertising, even channel Promo's, you wouldnt think they would allow that to 'slip through' would you?