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Brekkie

Listed below are comments made by Brekkie between Thursday, 22nd October 2009 and Tuesday, 24th November 2009 (11 Hours Ago) .

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What's On BBC Red Button: 14th - 27th November 10:26pm on 24 Nov 2009 I guess the tennis tonight ended up on BBC3 due to the Freeview limitations on the red button - so thanks for that.

Re: Freesat. I just don't understand why things like Doctor Who can't be made available when it's simply selecting a video stream. It's set up for sport (and has been around 18 months), so can't be that difficult for other services which are simply video feeds - even if it meant accessing them from the Sport Multiscreen.
Vancouver lights the way for London 2:36pm on 14 Nov 2009 Never mind HD, it's ridiculous coverage on Freeview will be limited to the hours on BBC2/BBC1 and one interactive stream, which will also be indemand for other events during February I'm sure.

With a significant proportion of digital viewers losing out on the extra interactive options, there needs to be additional coverage on BBC1/2 to compensate. I would hope too that some of the overnight events get an extended replay in the afternoons too.

And on the subject of the crown jewels, it would be ridiculous for the Winter Olympics to disappear from free to air TV. Golden moments may be few and far between, but when they happen they certainly qualify as moments of national interest - and just like listing the summer Olympics guarantees at least some coverage of minor summer sports, the same is said for the Winter Olympics. Afterall, there is virtually no live coverage of any winter sport events other than during the Olympics.
What's On BBC Red Button: 14th - 27th November 2:29pm on 14 Nov 2009 Notice the World Tennis Finals begin on BBC2 on the 22nd with live coverage of opening day, then live coverage of the semi-final and final the next weekend. Is their live coverage on the red button then during the week, and if so, is it available on Freeview? (ridiculous I have to ask that question really)
Follow-Up to BBC Red Button Changes on Freeview 8:32pm on 05 Nov 2009 For somebody who thinks democracy is so important, boilerplated seems to have little respect for free speech.
Follow-Up to BBC Red Button Changes on Freeview 6:52pm on 03 Nov 2009 The point is parliament doesn't need a full time channel, especially as parliament is in session as little as the MPs can get away with. I'm not saying coverage should be axed - just the space used to benefit the most number of viewers at the times the space is required.

There is no reason why live streaming from Parliament couldn't be offered via the red button most of the week, and when other services are fighting for the space a judgement can be made on what benefits the majority of licence payers the most.

After all, BBC Parliament is just a channel the BBC think should be of interest to it's viewers, rather than a channel the viewers demand.
Follow-Up to BBC Red Button Changes on Freeview 11:24pm on 02 Nov 2009 So here in North Wales digital switchover began last Wednesday - and the first so called "improvement" was seeing the BBCi coverage of the Magners League axed. Hows that for progress hey?

The space needs to be found sooner rather than later to rectify this situation - considering the other muxes will all contain at least 8 channels, there is no reason why an extra one can't be added to the BBC's mux too.

Failing that it's BBC Parliament which should be sacrificed in the short term - really rubbing it in our faces revealing the new political iPlayer today, which offers a service much more appropriate for parliament coverage than a linear TV channel.

And something I've mentioned before and IIRC it's something you were looking at implementing - having the alternative audio options directly on the BBC1/2 video streams rather than a separate interactive stream. That's practically a necessity now.
Changes to BBC Sport on the red button 11:19pm on 02 Nov 2009 Already this weekend (on a rather quiet weekend for sport really) this has severely affected coverage on Freeview, and the space needs to be found ASAP, by February at the latest in time for the Winter Olympics.
Changes to this blog 11:18pm on 02 Nov 2009 God, that was a bit of a pain. Seems to be the third or fourth time I've had to re-register here to comment!
Follow-Up to BBC Red Button Changes on Freeview 12:27pm on 25 Oct 2009 Re: C4's bandwidth. It's C4's - not OFCOMs or the BBC, and without the agreement of C4, they would be under no obligation to gift it to the BBC - and I see no reason why C4 should be forced to sacrifice a channel of their own to provide space for the BBC, even if the BBC Red Button stream is preferable.

In addition, they've not been gifted HD space - they had to bid for it. We now have the ridiculous situation where after a decade of digital being sold as making C4 and S4C available on their own channels in Wales, they'll have to share a HD stream (another consequence of OFCOM's incompetence).

Who can we complain to officially at the BBC about this decision? No point with OFCOM - they opened a consultation on it, which from forum discussions I'd imagine most comments were against it for exactly the reasons we're seeing now (I know I put views along that line forward), and then of course OFCOM ignored such views and did what they wanted anyway.

And quoting from above: "Freeview is the only platform without the BBC's HD content. It was felt important that it also offered viewers HD channels both from the BBC and from other broadcasters."

Wasn't it also felt important that the BBC's interactive services were available on all platforms, and indeed I'm sure I recall a report a couple of years back stating the BBC should make an effort to improve Freeview's offerings to be more comparable to those on Sky and Cable.

Indeed, what's the point in anyone investing in HD when a few years down the line somebody will decide the HD channels need to be sacrificed in order to provide 3DTV or something on Freeview. Indeed the 4 or 5 channel model for HD isn't sustainable at all - already the BBC have the content to easily offer at least two HD channels, whilst elsewhere plans for Film4 HD have had to be put on hold as there simply isn't space for them on Freeview.
BBC Red Button Changes on Freeview 9:38pm on 22 Oct 2009 It's about priorities though, and it's BBC Interactive, not BBC Parliament, which is often flagged up as one of the highlights of Freeview. BBC Parliament would still be available on Freesat, Sky, online and if 302 remained better use of 301/302 could be made to stream live coverage of key debates and news events during the week when other live events aren't using the service.

In reply to those saying about C4 giving space. I think that was only as part of the unrealistic "best case" scenario OFCOM put forward where even more channels were squeezed into the ITV/C4 mux. C4's main responsibility as part of all this has been to give space to S4C in Wales.

And back to sport - BBC Sport have stated they aim to offer live coverage of every event in 2012. This doesn't seem to be helping to reach that goal, but I hope 302 would be reinstated by then - but really with DSO I expected at least one extra interactive stream, not two less!

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