Fox News 16:9 on Sky

How long has it been like this? Its in letter box format though. Looks much better and nice to see a channel without 4:3 safe areas.

It changed today on all international platforms.

How come it can't be shown in true widescreen here. I'm sure in the US they have in 16:9.

They do indeed. I was in the USA this summer and noticed that they have a widescreen Fox News HD channel. The US networks really are leaving our broadcasters in the dust as far as HD goes. All of the major networks now have full-time HD channels and they looked great. I mostly saw news broadcasts while I was there and not much primetime programming (due to eating out etc.) but what I did see was absolutely pin sharp.

Well with Sky News HD here next Spring im sure others will follow.

But, don't forget that the all of the US's full power analogue transmitters are off, and we're three and a half years away from our deadline.

True, but that's something else I don't understand. How come a country as vast as the United States can switch to digital in one day, yet our tiny island takes several years to complete the transition?

Because they didn't insist on mollycoddling the public?

Also, isn't terrestrial a lesser-used format over there? Don't most people have cable of some description?

Because:
*We're more reliant on terrestrial TV broadcasting - not many people watch over the air in the US
*Our network is centrally run, planned and managed - their TV stations are independent private entities so they were all responsible for their own conversion
*We were years ahead of them in terms of digital terrestrial, so we're not just moving from analogue to digital we're also having to upgrade the existing digital system to a new one

Remember though that their switch over wasn't done in one day in the end.

It's probably to ensure that none of their distributors - those less geared up for widescreen - put out anamorphic pictures. It took BBC World a long while to go full 16:9, the other HD/16:9 international channel, Al Jazeera still isn't (except for their online stream)

Not just on international platforms - standard definition broadcasts of Fox News in the U.S. are shown in 16:9 letterbox from yesterday as well.

which would explain why its not 16:9, as the channel is still 4:3 but letterboxed. The only way to get it 16:9 would be to either use a zoom and lose resolution or downconvert the HD stream at Sky's headend