Widescreen

I was wondering, which country makes use of widescreen on domestic TV services?

I think that the UK is a leader in the race at least because even news is in 'widescreen' (BBC) and adverts are now made and supplied in 16:9.
These are things that don't really need to made in 16:9 but they are due to the massive uptake of widescreen.

I know there are still are a lot of 4:3 programmes out there but I think that we are doing well!

America, can someone help me out on this? A lot of programmes that are exported to the UK are made in 16:9 but a lot of networks only get 4:3 versions so I can't really judge how the use of widescreen is the US.
Maybe a viewer in America can hep out!

AFAIK America don't use widescreen on television transmission.

When programmes are made by the BBC which are going to be sold to other broadcasters, then a 4:3 master has to be made.  Guidelines for shooting and editing were writen a few years ago so that when programmes are made widescreen, the main action takes place in the 4:3 raster.  UK analouge transmission is 14:9 letterbox, so most of the full image is shown.

Anyone who has watched BBC World in America will notice how awful the pictures look.  Not only are they standards converted, but as the studio output is 14:9 letterbox, the picture is ARC'd in the States (aspect ratio converted) to fill the whole screen.  (I think there is a law in the States about blanking, and letterbox breaks this)

Japan and the US seem to be gearing themselves up for HDTV, whereas the Europeans seem quite happy with the digital standards recently introduced.

The Australians are busy with digital tv as well. It kicked on 1/1/01 (most noticeable here in the UK with Neighbours). For more info see:

http://7digital.i7.com.au/MinisiteFrameset/0,,PDI1000067,00.html (nice and catchy!)

Cheers, Asa

The UK is the leader for television period. American TV sucks (both the content and quality). Widescreen is slowly coming to America now though. PBS is on the forefront of brodcasting Digital, HDTV, widescreen programmes. Many commercials are also now in widescreen. But now programmes on the networks are yet in widescreen. We are however, slowly moving to an all-digital environment. According the the Federal Communications Commision, all analogue transmissions by TV stations must cease by 2002 and all channels must be broadcast in digital. That's really not going to happen by next year, maybe I got the date wrong, but it's supposed to happen really soon.

I suppose if we could compare British TV to another country the most similar would probably be Australia.
Or perhaps Canada.
Yes, Canada actually.

James - the three state-run channels here in Greece (ET1, NET and ET3) occasionally show programmes and films in PalPlus widescreen. But in the years I have lived here, I've never seen any of the privately-owned stations do so.

Oddly, when ET1 etc's pictures go w/s, the DOGs get squashed as well so they don't show correctly on either ratio. Also, there used to be a special multicoloured PalPlus DOG overlaid on all such broadcasts.

As an aside, there's no terrestrial digital service here - but over a year ago, the country's first domestic satellite service - Nova - began broadcasting, and that's completely digital (but no w/s - not even for the film channels, so I believe) It also broadcasts BBC World with live Greek subtitles!

The first digital tv package in Europe was CanalSatellite in France in 1996

I just saw this on Multichannel News about DTV products in the US:

Digital-television product sales are expected to see strong gains throughout 2001, the Consumer Electronics Association said Monday.

Sales from manufacturers to dealers were up 193 percent in May over last year's numbers, to 84,000 units, the CEA said.

In April, the CEA celebrated the 1 millionth digital-television product sold to a retailer.

The CEA predicted that 1.1 million digital-TV products will be sold this year.


The main problem with Digital TV products in America are that they are INCREDIBLY expensive. It really sucks!



And on another note, NBC lost the Weakest Link to some CBS stations in America, including WCBS-TV here in New York (guess I'll be watching CBS on Mondays now!)

How can they lose the weakest link to CBS?

Almost every major city in the US have their own network afiliate. Only a few of these afiliates are owned by the network themselves (NBC, CBS, ABC, or Fox) - most are owned by independent groups/people. The affiliates have enormous power over what they want to put on their channel or not. They don't even have to air the national news programmes! It's really a stupid system IMO. So I guess that WCBS offered to buy the Weakest Link for WNBC (both in New York) for a lot of money, and WNBC accepted and there you go. But I've never heard of a popular show switching networks! I can't believe NBC just let it happen.

Hope I cleared it up, but I don't really understand it either.

The maximum reach of the tv stations owned by a company in the US  is 35% of the television households.

ABC (owned by Disney) owns 10 out of the 225 TV stations which form the ABC network. The 10 stations reach 24% of the US television households. Their stations are  in New York, Los Ángeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham (NC), Fresno ( CA), Flint (MI) and Toledo (OH).

CBS owns 16 out of the 200+ TV stations which form the CBS network. The 16 stations are in New York, Los Ángeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (FL), Denver (CO), Pittsburgh (PA), Baltimore (MD), Salt Lake City, Austin, Green Bay-Appleton (WI). BTW, they broadcast in digital in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas (low power), Detroit, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
If you add the TV stations they own and which are part of the UPN network they reach 48% of all U.S. television households, which equals approximately 41% of U.S. television households under the FCC national ownership limitation.

(The FCC's order approving the merger of Viacom -owner of MTV, Paramount, Simon & Schuster, and Blockbuster- and CBS requires that Viacom-CBS be in compliance with the FCC's national ownership limitation of 35% by May 4, 2001. Viacom has challenged the rule in federal court and is seeking a stay of the requirement to come into compliance with the limit pending judicial review of the national ownership cap).

NBC (owned by GE) owns 13 out of the 220 TV stations which form the NBC network. The 16 stations are in New York, Los Ángeles, Chicago, Birmingham (AL), San Diego (CA), Hartford (CT), Miami (FL), Columbus (OH), Raleigh-Durham (NC), Philadelphia, Providence (RI), Dallas and Washington (DC).




(Edited by PZG at 12:09 am on June 21, 2001)