Advertising

Have noticed a number of apparently upscaled SD adverts recently. Is there a technical standard for broadcast advertising in general or is it up to agreement between the advertiser, agency and broadcaster involved?

There was a pan-UK delivery standard. When digital TV arrived adverts continued to be delivered in 4:3 even though channels were running 16:9. Rather than a piecemeal approach to 16:9 delivery - which would presumably have been doomed - they switched all advert delivery to 16:9 on C-Day. (1st July 2000)

I'm not a huge viewer of commercial channels - but had always assumed that 16:9 SD was still the UK delivery standard - and that adverts shown on HD channels were upscaled on delivery. I haven't consciously noted any commercials (as distinct from broadcaster produced trails) that have jumped out at me as being HD.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070929163800/http://www.bluelucy.com/C-day%20Technical%20Guide.pdf

I generally FWD through the ads, but I can't say I've ever seen any native HD ones yet ?
Also, the upscaling is often very poor quality, and bizarrely some seem to suffer nasty low
bit rate 'mosquitoing', which I simply can't explain?

I'm sure Sky broadcast the odd HD advert on their channels. The dishwasher tablet one with diamonds springs to mind.

Comedy Central and Nickelodeon broadcast all of their own promos (for their own shows/channels) in HD.

Channel 4 and Channel 5 broadcast their ads in HD but BBC and ITV do not

Although ITV does broadcast its idents in HD.


BBC One broadcasts its idents in HD but only the logo formation and 'Subtitles' text are HD, the actual footage isn't. (e.g. http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=BBC1HD-2010-ID-HIPPOS-1 ) BBC Two and BBC Four are the same in that regard, the logo is HD but the footage isn't. BBC Three's idents are in HD since they were only introduced relatively recently.

Channel 4 is hit or miss, sometimes they will broadcast their idents in HD (usually newer ones), sometimes they don't. You can tell because the 4 HD DOG appears.

I can't get C5 HD, but I don't think I've seen an HD ad on C4, ( DTT Meridian region), perhaps only the London version carries them, or is that the version I'm getting on DTT ?

Wonder if the adverts are stored and/or delivered in SD and quite compressed? The compression artefacts will presumably be masked by the high-levels of MPEG2 compression on DVB-S/T/C SD outlets, but on the relatively clean HD outlets they will presumably be a bit more visible. (This is assuming the HD upscaling is done live rather than on ingest?)

Eh - the BBC don't carry adverts on any domestic outlets.

We are specifically talking about adverts (i.e. commercials paid for by advertisers) not trails (which are in-house promotions for shows being broadcast) When you talk about "their ads" do you mean trails, rather than adverts? Legally adverts and trails are very different - as broadcasters are regulated as to the number of minutes per hour of advertisements (whcih generate revenue) they can show, but are under no such restriction for trails (which don't generate revenue)

Trails are a mix of SD and HD depending on broadcasters, but I don't recall seeing any HD native adverts on ITV, Channel Four or Channel 5. I am not sure about some of the Sky Channels - I seldom watch the ad breaks as I usually watch on Sky+ and shuttle.

ITV's idents seem upscaled on HD to me compared to Channel 4/Channel 5. But yeah I've always wondered why most UK adverts are still SD upscaled. During primetime in the USA/Canada they're natively HD.

It is odd. When colour came to ITV, just about all the ads were in colour overnight (unlike the programmes), but we've had HD for over five years now, and nothing.....?