Presenting Widescreen and Standard Services Side by Side: The BBC Experience

Recently the UK has launched a range of digital widescreen services. The services are expected to replace the existing services, so it is necessary to transmit the same material on both the new widescreen services and the standard format analogue services. This provides challenges in producing material that is pleasing on both formats without remastering programs and having the expense of transmitting two separate channels. — The BBC has been transmitting these widescreen and 4times3 services alongside each other since the start of June. It is not easy to provide a continuing service to existing viewers and at the same time deliver an exciting service that people will buy. This paper describes the BBC's experience in providing a simulcast widescreen and 4times3 service — The issues in providing programming that is compatible with both formats are discussed. A cost effective way of providing the simulcast services is shown together with the policy options for shooting material. — The article concludes by discussing the best option for the delivery of simultaneous services so that all the viewer get the best out of our range of channels.

Published

1998-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00281

ISBN

978-1-61482-929-4