[opendtv] Grade 'invites CEOs to join HD war cabinet'
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:03:10 -0400
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2501
Grade 'invites CEOs to join HD war cabinet'
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade is reportedly in the process of
forming a 'war cabinet' with other senior members of the HD for All
alliance of public service broadcasters, consumer electronics
manufacturers and retailers, who are lobbying for spectrum to be
reserved for free-to-view high-definition channels on digital
terrestrial television.
The Sunday Telegraph said Grade had written to chief executives at other
members of the alliance to organise its first CEO-level meeting. The
meeting would bring HD for All's aims to the attention of ministers, and
the public, as media regulator Ofcom continues to conduct more research
into the future of spectrum due to be liberated by digital switchover,
having stated its intentions to auction the entire spectrum to the
highest bidder.
Grade told The Sunday Telegraph: "Retailers, manufacturers and rival
broadcasters are determined to get the Government and the regulator to
understand ... the level of consumer anger they are going to face after
analogue switchover when the public realise that they will be unable to
receive their favourite channels in HD on Freeview on the HD-ready TV
sets they are buying in their millions." The newspaper said Sony UK
chief Steve Dowdle had told culture secretary Tessa Jowell in a letter
that the UK was "currently heading for a disastrous outcome that will
deprive the majority of the UK public of HD for at least a generation if
not more".
Last month Grade offered the Government a compromise solution, telling
Jowell that public service broadcasters would be willing to help "drive
the transition to a more efficient transmission standard on DTT" if the
Government loaned them "a little over a multiplex of capacity". "In due
course, once HD compatible boxes are sufficiently widespread, we will
give the loaned spectrum back and it can be auctioned. Even if you did
this Ofcom would still be able to auction nearly two thirds of the
released spectrum now which would give plenty of space for successful
bidders to develop mobile TV, wi-fi and so on," Grade told Jowell at an
industry event.
As we reported last week, Tory MP Peter Luff, chairman of the Commons
trade and industry select committee, says it is "unreasonable" to expect
Ofcom to make what amounts to a "political decision" on HD and Freeview.
Lovelace Consulting 18.06.2007
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