I agree. Thanks for taking the time to post here! I'm definitely looking forward to the Score's official HD offering.

operating an HD service will generate no revenue and there is no ROI and only large capital operating costs wich soar as a Network such as The Score produces a very large percent of its programing themselves.

While I can appreciate there is no additional revenue to be generated by going HD, is the move to HD not more defensive, to prevent the bleeding of HD-capable viewers to broadcasters that do offer HD? I'm sure I'm not the only HD viewer who's tuner rarely strays out of the HD channels, as SD has become just too painful to watch on my large widescreen.

I know I was one of the cynical early posters in this thread, but I do appreciate the information you are bringing to this forum Score Board. Those of us who've gone through some of the early growing pains of HD (the dreaded turtles demo reel on BEV anyone?) know only too well the frustrations of broadcasters who seem somewhat slow, or even reluctant, to join the HD party; we've all invested thousands of our hard-earned dollars to maximize our home viewing experience, we want it all, we want it yesterday, and we sometimes loose sight that our investment pales in comparison to the cost of the HD transition for broadcasters.

Good luck on your rollout of Score HD. I hope your negotiations with BEV, and other providers, are successful, so I'll have one less reason to stray from the HD tier. And I'm sure we all hope you'll continue your participation here once your testing is complete and you're up and running.

While I can appreciate there is no additional revenue to be generated by going HD, is the move to HD not more defensive, to prevent the bleeding of HD-capable viewers to broadcasters that do offer HD? I'm sure I'm not the only HD viewer who's tuner rarely strays out of the HD channels, as SD has become just too painful to watch on my large widescreen.

I know I was one of the cynical early posters in this thread, but I do appreciate the information you are bringing to this forum Score Board. Those of us who've gone through some of the early growing pains of HD (the dreaded turtles demo reel on BEV anyone?) know only too well the frustrations of broadcasters who seem somewhat slow, or even reluctant, to join the HD party; we've all invested thousands of our hard-earned dollars to maximize our home viewing experience, we want it all, we want it yesterday, and we sometimes loose sight that our investment pales in comparison to the cost of the HD transition for broadcasters.

Good luck on your rollout of Score HD. I hope your negotiations with BEV, and other providers, are successful, so I'll have one less reason to stray from the HD tier. And I'm sure we all hope you'll continue your participation here once your testing is complete and you're up and running.

Thx once again I'm trying to give you all insight into what happens on the other side of the plate to the small independents like us, not excusses. Other Broadcasters don't think the same way we do and I'm not here to take thier inventory just give you all the facts and let you come to your own conclusions.. Your feedback is welcome and has driven my vision over the last 10 years and played a major role in our HD plans. I will detail this when I can.

You are correct that TSN and Sports Net have there HD service. If we felt we were the 3rd Sports Network in Canada then yes the knee jerk reaction would apply like otheres have done. Yes like you many have large invesments in thier HD systems at home, I am the same. I am like you and want the best and more of it but at what price and I don't mean out of pocket.

The Score is a news and information channel it does not consider itself a Sports Network in the same sence as TSN and SN. We will fail if we try to compete directly with a programing mandate simply because they have a much higher sub revenue and much deeper pockets. Watch for our HD roll out you will see different technologies that have never been deployed before. I will give bullet details on roll out and return to go over with you.

Did you know I would have a much better bottom line and could avoid CRTC issiues, and wouldn't have to worry about public slagging if I signed a 5 year for National HD Distrobution with Cancom @ 14 mbs of space costing 1.4 million per year. Then sat on the space broadcasting nothing untill there was a ROI for my HD exsistance.? This scenario has more truth than you think, I cannot give details but if you look hard enough in all the right places you will find this info, it's public and happening as we speak. So be careful what you wish for and remember the CRTC controls my sub rates and we our current sub rate is 800% lower than TSN.......Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm


The Score being small has to be different and offer somthing the Big Boys can't The Score is like a Raptor while the others Stegasorus but in the end who lived to tell :)



SB

Thanks for giving us some insight. You contributions have already changed my opinion of you guys. Thanks again and I hope you continue giving us the goods.

Thx now don't think you have to go watch I wouldn't want U to burn in with our Ticker.....:o

I will explain what steps we have taken to avoid this soon.

I also plan to have an HD FAQ page on our website. This will not be soley for Score related issiues and I need all of you to come up with questions that I can answer. This will be of great asset and I will of course inclued your name and location if you wish. I have to keep the questions general and I have to avoid legal issiues so please use discression.

Look forward to you all having a little piece in The Score

SB

glad to see some "offical" reports.. very helpful.

Is there a target date for the official launch of this channel?

Great idea for the question board...it appears that SCORE is the first Canadian Network to actually go full bore into HD...and take it seriously...love to hear this.

Did you know I would have a much better bottom line and could avoid CRTC issiues, and wouldn't have to worry about public slagging if I signed a 5 year for National HD Distrobution with Cancom @ 14 mbs of space costing 1.4 million per year. Then sat on the space broadcasting nothing untill there was a ROI for my HD exsistance.? This scenario has more truth than you think, I cannot give details but if you look hard enough in all the right places you will find this info, it's public and happening as we speak. So be careful what you wish for

SB

So are you saying that companies are paying $2.8m/year to Cancom to keep 1/2 of Anik F2 ku tr 27 + 1/2 of tr 31 empty right now?

Meaning that you can't get space on F2 until F3 is operational?

glad to see some "offical" reports.. very helpful.

Is there a target date for the official launch of this channel?

I'm bound my an ND to the public and as soon as I can tell you I will. Since this board is lets say membership only you may here before the press release. If I don't get a chance it's only due to fire storms.

SB

So are you saying that companies are paying $2.8m/year to Cancom to keep 1/2 of Anik F2 ku tr 27 + 1/2 of tr 31 empty right now?

Meaning that you can't get space on F2 until F3 is operational?

Somthing to think about

Bell Globe Media owns all Anik and Nimq Birds

Cost to ExpreesVu for bandwidth $0

Cost to Broadcaster for space segment on BEV if accepted $0

Broadcaster see same sub rate on BEV, SC, Shaw, Rogers..etc

Telesat agrees to end of life contract of Anik Birds and manages them

Telesat farms the Anik space out to Cancom at lower costs than can be otained by Broadcasters

Cancom commits to all KU transponders available

Cancom is the only distribution platform that works in Canada and is KU 28mhz poor choice for Cable Distro only choice for DTH

Broadcasters pay Cancom 100,000 per mbs 14 mbs for HD = 2 services per TP

All cable headends not on Rogers Sonnet use Cancom and pay an access fee

Cancom is also Shaw and Star Choice

Cost to Star Coice for distribution to homes $0 tarrif paid by Broadcast fees

Cost to Shaw Cable headends $0 tarrif paid by Broadcast fees

Reason why there is limited HD on Star Choice and Shaw

Priceless


Now does that make more sence and all appoved by the CRTC


You will see more HD on Shaw and Star Choice when F-3 parks and Broadcasters can affored 1.4 million a year for distrobution with no revenue source to pay for it. Bev cost me $0 for my services but programing has to be approved. While I have to pay Cancoms fees which gets me on SC and Shaw to make the same revenue

just a little note the CRTC say that for all analouge and Cat 1 services that I have to provied equal access to all BDU's. This ruling forces all must carry broadcasters to use Cancom. HD and Cat-2 are not must carry and the broadcaster has little choice but to use Cancom if they want to reach all of Canada's systems. Currently Cancom not Telesat has no KU space and have commited to all KU space on Anik F3 just hope that they can pay for it but who knows is the public complains enough on HD avail then I might be forced by the CRTC to pay 1.4 or shut down my HD with no revenue and high capital operational cost I would chose to drop HD and feed my kids or they might factor in a break even for broadcasters and lay a tarrif to the public for aceess to HD services.

So what next more HD you tell me?

SB

All that flew right over my head. Maybe someone should start a new thread on this topic, and explain what this means. I feel like I should be mad at the CRTC, but I don't know why.

Ah, interesting.

I wonder how much capacity one could move over a digital coast-to-coast
microwave network ... though I guess Bell has dismantled most of it already, and had no incentive to do otherwise ...

Nick

Ah, interesting.

I wonder how much capacity one could move over a digital coast-to-coast
microwave network ... though I guess Bell has dismantled most of it already, and had no incentive to do otherwise ...

Nick

Micro Wave is the least favored route of Video transport due to enviormental fade.

Fiber would not work imagine having to feed over 400 cable head ends with 100 channels

Sat feeds are the only solution since one sat can feed an unlimited number of recievers from a 20 watt transmitter.

The current positioning was a very creative move by Cancom. They came to Braodcasters and offered to cut there sat cost by 20% on a five year deal and there would be little or no down time as they moved us of C-band and offered to provied HITS which is a system that manages the IRD's for free.

Well you know the rest of the story

SB

Somthing to think about

Bell Globe Media owns all Anik and Nimq Birds

Cost to ExpreesVu for bandwidth $0

Cost to Broadcaster for space segment on BEV if accepted $0

Broadcaster see same sub rate on BEV, SC, Shaw, Rogers..etc

SB

I don't want to come across as critical, but to clarify some of your points

It's Telesat, a division of BCE that owns the Anik and Nimiq satellites. BCE is in the process of taking Telesat semi public. There is a charge on Telesat books to Expressvu for lifetime lease of the transponders and satellite maintenance of NIMIQs. Whether cash actually changes hands at this time is a moot point. But when Telesat goes public, cash will be paid.

As for BGM, BCE is divesting itself of majority interest. Upon CRTC approval, BCE will own a minority stake - 20% of BGM.

I can certainly see that you are at a disadvantage by having only a small # of services.

Certainly, there are others who have the rights and access to many hours of HD. They could easily afford the Cancom charge for an omnibus HD channel that the CRTC has indicated it would approve. But these broadcast licence holders do zippo except donate to groups who are vocal against grey market.

What is needed for this country to go forward, is for the CRTC to approve HDNet and for Cancom to distribute it and 1 of the Superstations in HD. These 2 measures would be shots across the bows greatly needed in Soviet Canada.

All that flew right over my head. Maybe someone should start a new thread on this topic, and explain what this means. I feel like I should be mad at the CRTC, but I don't know why.


Sorry didn't mean to get off on a tangent in short............

You will see more HD on BEV and Rogers unless the Broadcasters can a least break even and HD can pay for itself or the CRTC approves huge rate increase to support HD which by the way would bring an abundance of canadian HD programing

The current CTRC rules do not allow Broadcasters to have more than 15% different program then there SD feeds So you can see why there is so much sim sub imagine trying to cover the costs tp produce all HD then down convert to meet the SD requirments. Untill the production costs of HD get close to HD your gonna have to hope the Blue Ray come out:confused: but thats another story:p

SB

This doesn't appear to be a problem for Discovery HD, which appears to be a separate channel from Discovery (SD) and airs totally different programming. (Rogers 505 vs 42)

This doesn't appear to be a problem for Discovery HD, which appears to be a separate channel from Discovery (SD) and airs totally different programming. (Rogers 505 vs 42)
I think because Discovery HD was approved as a different channel, not just the HD version of the SD channel. Think MC/TMN-HD. They can show any HD movie they want, it's just usually on one of the other SD channels.

I'm assuming that if The Score HD was approved as a pay/specialty channel, with different programming and restrictions, they would be able to show different programming and eliminate the ticker.

I don't want to come across as critical, but to clarify some of your points

It's Telesat, a division of BCE that owns the Anik and Nimiq satellites. BCE is in the process of taking Telesat semi public. There is a charge on Telesat books to Expressvu for lifetime lease of the transponders and satellite maintenance of NIMIQs. Whether cash actually changes hands at this time is a moot point. But when Telesat goes public, cash will be paid.

As for BGM, BCE is divesting itself of majority interest. Upon CRTC approval, BCE will own a minority stake - 20% of BGM.

I can certainly see that you are at a disadvantage by having only a small # of services.

Certainly, there are others who have the rights and access to many hours of HD. They could easily afford the Cancom charge for an omnibus HD channel that the CRTC has indicated it would approve. But these broadcast licence holders do zippo except donate to groups who are vocal against grey market.

What is needed for this country to go forward, is for the CRTC to approve HDNet and for Cancom to distribute it and 1 of the Superstations in HD. These 2 measures would be shots across the bows greatly needed in Soviet Canada.


Great Stuff nice to see somone who has an opinion does their Home Work. For the most part you are correct. Just remeber that if the CRTC deregulates and lets services in like HD Net expect your current cable and sat bill to increase dramaticaly. There is so much in play here than appears at first glance it is much more than simply letting US services come in to play the fall out would have an effect not just directly but in directly on hundreds of companies that are tied to Canadian Broadcasting. This would not be accepted by the general population as a hole. There is no simple answer for the current climate if there were we wouldn't be having this conversation comparing Canadian operating conditions to the US is like comparing Coal to Diamonds.

On another note if you do some research you will find the Omni-Bus proposal has been shot down bye the CRTC just look up descions for Star Choice and Shaw. This will stand against them for reasons found in my previuo post you can't have your cake and eat it.

THx SB

Interesting stuff BUT can we plase stay on topic and that topic is Score HD.

Discussions about the CRTC etc belong in the General Cable and Satellite forum.

Thank-you!

This doesn't appear to be a problem for Discovery HD, which appears to be a separate channel from Discovery (SD) and airs totally different programming. (Rogers 505 vs 42)

This is a Cat-2 speciality service and does not fall under the same ruling. This does serve as an unfair advantage in some ways but is deemed discresionary and meets the requirment of 85% Canadian ownership. They still have to abide by Canadian content rules.

On another note if you do some research you will find that Native HD on HDnet makes up less than half of their current programing. The rest is upconverted.

Thx SB

Interesting stuff BUT can we plase stay on topic and that topic is Score HD.

Discussions about the CRTC etc belong in the General Cable and Satellite forum.

Thank-you!

Thx Hugh sorry to get off topic I will refrain from answering question that do not directly apply to The Score.

SB