Sky to Start HDTV Transmissions in 2006

9th June 2004

Sky have said they will start transmitting HDTV (high-definition TV) to pay-customers in 2006.

HDTV uses a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which means there's 1920 pixels per horizontal line and 1080 horizontal lines. This compares with the SDTV (standard definition TV) resolution that digital TV viewers currently receive of usually 704 pixels x 576 lines, therefore the number of lines for HDTV is roughly double that of SDTV. HDTV therefore provides a far sharper picture quality than SDTV and those that have seen HDTV invariably rave about its picture quality.

The BBC have also said recently that they are considering using HDTV transmissions, but only on digital satellite and cable because there is insufficient bandwidth on DTT. Using the current MPEG-2 video codec as used on digital satellite, cable and terrestrial, the bit rate required for an HDTV channel is about 18 Mbps, which would require a whole multiplex for just one HDTV channel on DTT, whereas there is an enormous amount of bandwidth available on satellite and cable.

HDTV is already available in the USA, Australia and Japan. There is also one European operator providing HD transmissions on the Astra digital satellite platform, but this is on a different satellite to the one used by Sky. Euro1080 provides 2 channels: a Main Channel and an Event Channel, the latter of which is encrypted, while I believe the former is unencrypted, and if this is the case it can be received now by anybody with the correct equipment.