SBS Tasmania Off Air on Optus D1

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › SBS Tasmania Off Air on Optus D1

1 | ... | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624679 14-May-2012 09:58

There may well be alternatives to the Ultraplus boxes too. If there were one, I'd recommend it, assuming of course that you can get hold of a suitable card anyway, and that you feel the effort is worth it for a 4:3 aspect ratio SD service that will also be disabled within 18 months.

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624692 14-May-2012 10:17

I wonder how many people actually watched SBS in NZ until recently, and whether more would have if they had they known about it and had the equipment? Could NZ ever be a viable market for such a broadcaster? Is it worth asking them?

I would love to see an SBS channel officially broadcast to NZ (funded by NZ targeted adverts). Or is this where Choice TV is aiming?

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624710 14-May-2012 10:37

grolschie: I wonder how many people actually watched SBS in NZ until recently,...

Let's see - those with a satellite dish, but probably not the great majority of those with Sky (so that's really those who are outside the DVB-T area who have geared up for digital - call it 75k households), minus those who are not 'enthusiasts' or just haven't heard (down to maybe 20k), minus those who would be interested in the content (down to 15k), minus those who didn't feel technically competent to implement it, or have it arranged - down to 10k), minus those who thought it was 'wrong' (down to 9k).
Yeah - I'll go with that - around 5-10k households.
Plug in your own factors and values for your own estimate.

...and whether more would have if they had they known about it and had the equipment?

Most assuredly!

Could NZ ever be a viable market for such a broadcaster?

"Viable" is a loaded word in this content. SBS is a government subsidised service (I believe it has its own Act of Parliament) operated as a public service. "Viable" here, means "for profit". Maybe I'm cynical, but "public service" and "for profit" don't play well together.

Is it worth asking them?

Who? SBS? It's beyond their mandate. The NZ government? Their position is fairly clear. A private company? "Show me the money!"

I would love to see an SBS channel officially broadcast to NZ (funded by NZ targeted adverts).

It would be great, but it would take government-government negotiation, and government funding, and the licensing issues may be insurmountable in the short-medium term (in the long term, broadcast TV is dead anyway). As for advertising, At 5 minutes per hour, it isn't a big supplier of space, but if that was increased, one of the two major attractions of the SBS service would disappear, the other being content.

Or is this where Choice TV is aiming?

Well, if I could receive it, I might have an opinion on this too. ;)

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624721 14-May-2012 10:54

Ok, thanks. So it's a bit more involved than simply inserting NZ ads and not broadcasting content that it doesn't have the rights to broadcast in NZ then.

I would think that they have already created much of the content anyways, why not monetize it further? As an aside, we bought 2 (if I recall correctly) copies of the SBS series "Feast Greece" on DVD after seeing it on SBS.

How does the Austalian Network manage broadcasting to the pacific? I know that sports are encrypted.

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#624731 14-May-2012 11:11

grolschie: Ok, thanks. So it's a bit more involved than simply inserting NZ ads and not broadcasting content that it doesn't have the rights to broadcast in NZ then.

I would think that they have already created much of the content anyways, why not monetize it further?

Here's the thing: Much of the content broadcast on SBS is licensed from other producers such as the BBC. Therefore, SBS cannot knowingly broadcast it outside of Australia.

They would have no problem in broadcasting their own news programmes, and any other content originated by them. However, after watching it for the past few months, SBS-originated content seemed very much in the minority. Not meaning to imply that it was a bad thing -- in fact quite the contrary!

Having been made aware of what is available, I have now been finding those same programmes on various other legitimate websites. If the BBC were to enable viewing of their programmes by subscription to a worldwide audience, I would gladly pay them a few dollars per episode. Until that time arrives, the only option available is a VPN, or Unblock-Us etc.

mthredgo

80 posts

Master Geek

#624745 14-May-2012 11:25

SBS currently has state based advertising going into its different markets. NZ viewers would have been familiar with ads for Hobart and Launceston since we were getting the SBS Tasmania feed.
SBS also has time delays for its South Australian, NT and Sandgroper services.

My original suggestion was that NZ funded SBS $20million per annum so that SBS could drop the ads (as I had seen a figure that they got $20 million in revenue from the ads, and their introduction annoyed the heck out of some Australian viewers). If NZ wanted to fund SBS then you'd imagine there'd be a SBS NZ service.

I wouldn't think it would be time shifted (as time shifting into the future would muck up their News production). So everything would be on two hours later by the clock in NZ. It does mean that the programming from 4-6pm or so Sydney Time could be made more interesting since there'd be more eyes on it in NZ (and the content could be more specifically NZ oriented) At the moment it is the PBS news hour and Turkish news and such which could be dropped, shifted earlier in the day or put to SBS 2 (or SBS 3 or 4)

So if SBS continued with ads and if the NZ gov't bought in so it was on NZ Freeview there would be an extra revenue stream from selling NZ specific ads into the SBS New Zealand service. And any advertiser who wanted to advertise to A and NZ would pay a bit more then they currently would to make it go across every service.

Yes they'd have to pay a little more for broadcast rights to some programming but that would be paid for by increased revenue and NZ government funding. It might be a bit tricky getting broadcast rights when there are different competitors for those rights in the two different markets.

I could think that with political will from an NZ government it would all be quite doable. There is however a lack of political will for any form of public broadcasting in NZ until we quite rightly change the government.

As for saying just get a local one up with all the same programming then yes that would be good, but one of the strengths of SBS is putting the subtitles onto the bottom of the foreign films. (World Movies on Sky would be a step forward too). The foreign news during the day would be quite easy to emulate, and then the docos and interesting stuff could just be bought normally like any other station, including buying SBS content with subtitles already on them, or their locally produced stuff. It could be done. Stratos kind of failed trying though.

Groschie,
Australia Network doesn't officially broadcast to NZ. However it is on Intelsat 5 C-band unencrypted and you can pick it up in NZ on a min 90cm dish. 1.2m better.

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#624757 14-May-2012 11:38

It may have not had much or anythign to do with Sky but the fact they claim they "didn't know it was even available in NZ" shows to me that they are full of !@#$...

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

silverlake

142 posts

Master Geek

#624771 14-May-2012 11:54

xarqi: There may well be alternatives to the Ultraplus boxes too. If there were one, I'd recommend it, assuming of course that you can get hold of a suitable card anyway, and that you feel the effort is worth it for a 4:3 aspect ratio SD service that will also be disabled within 18 months.

I'm using an Openbox S10 which you can get on TradeMe for about $150. The trick is to find the Aurora card. I originally got the Aurora card with another set top box that I bought on TradeMe.

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624775 14-May-2012 12:02

mthredgo:

...

Groschie,
Australia Network doesn't officially broadcast to NZ. However it is on Intelsat 5 C-band unencrypted and you can pick it up in NZ on a min 90cm dish. 1.2m better.

Thanks for that. However, Australia Network broadcast to other countries e.g. Hong Kong, China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc, not just the Pacific islands. I wonder what the difference is?

Is AN worth getting a dish for?

benneg

47 posts

Geek

#624830 14-May-2012 13:14

SuitedScooter:
GeekGuy: World famous in New Zealand ... eh !

Only cos I hosted a website showing people how to decode SkyTV UHF back in the day and got myself in a little trouble with the powers. Luckily, nothing came of it and I lived happily ever after (even though my tutorial still lives online).

I'm now trying to figure a way that I can stream a STB (in Australia) with good compression via a linux box and Static IP to us here in NZ using some kind of script to create a torrent file. Just haven't figured out the best way.

Think AppleTV or the like.

Based on equipment costs, stability of Linus, cheap broadband and a desire to get SBS back, it must be possible. And I'm even happy to meet the costs.

Any thoughts? Any ideas? Any contacts? (I have one that could/would host a box in Oz)(I hope).

Kim DotCom?

Lets hope I don't get "famous" again.

Have you ever looked at the SBS web site and seen how much on-demand content they have available?

May be it would be easier to get a VPN connection to Aussie and then just use the on-demand content?

If you wish to record then a program such as 'Audials One' could help?

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#624935 14-May-2012 15:29

Is the on demand content HD? Does it carry ads? Can it be downloaded and stored for replay?

baker5

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#625020 14-May-2012 18:21

Add to the mix that new ISP - FYX is now removing its global channel service (offer lasted about a week or so ).. thus no international media feeds... and Sky saying "It's nothing to do with us."

mthredgo

80 posts

Master Geek

#625030 14-May-2012 18:50

With their quality programming they're probably showing reruns of Hogan's Heroes on one of the Sky channels.

"I know nothing" says Sergeant Schulz.

old3eyes

9119 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#625041 14-May-2012 19:01

Interesting Bob Scot article here on digital TV in NZ. Especially this bit

"I've heard that with a satellite dish and Freeview box, I can pick up some Australian channels free. True?

Shhhh! It's true but it's not quite kosher. The channels, including public broadcaster SBS, beam from the same satellite used by Freeview, and the bigger your dish the better the odds of picking them up. But according to Freeview NZ's general manager Sam Irvine, some signals are feeds to Australian re-broadcast transmitters, rather than signals meant for the public. This makes it relatively easy for Australian rights-holders to get the signal encrypted if, say, they read an article about Kiwis getting a free ride. Indeed only last week, one satellite-freebie watcher told the Star-Times SBS had just disappeared from their set-top box. Spooky."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6915209/How-to-watch-television

Regards,

Old3eyes

SuitedScooter

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#625110 14-May-2012 21:29

xarqi: Is the on demand content HD? Does it carry ads? Can it be downloaded and stored for replay?

I signed up for a VPN through a company called Witopia and that system works (NZ$9 pm) but the OnDemand system detects that the Witopia system's connection speed is pretty slow and therefore feeds the program at a really poor quality.

VPN is simply remote access i.e your computer connects to another computer (in Australia in this case) and you then surf the internet. No ads. Exactly the same as if you were using your computer.

With some kind of flash player downloader, you could save the programs to your computer, but as mentioned, depending on the speed of the VPN, you may get poor quality.

I'd be interested to hear other reports of VPN suppliers and their costs.

P.S I can't believe that this forum censors the word that starts with "s" and finishes in "hit". How primitive.

In case you're interested the word POOR was not my first choice of words :)

1 | ... | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14