Posted on 10/26/2006 7:20:25 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
NBC says it's dropping most scripted programs from the network's 8 p.m. time slot next season, replacing them with reality and game shows.
The unscripted fare, which is cheaper to produce, will not be broadcast in High-Definition TV. However, NBC Universal TV CEO Jeff Zucker says that's no big deal.
In an interview with The Washington Post, published today at washingtonpost.com, Zucker was asked if high-def viewers might be less interested in watching non-HD programming.
"It's hard to say if viewers will be less interested in unscripted programming that's not in HD when the rest of the programming is in HD," Zucker tells the newspaper. "I think it's a fair question, but I'm not overly concerned about it at this point."
While the HDTV audience is growing, some network executives have occasionally remarked that it's still too small to have an impact on network schedules and ratings. HDTVs are now in approximately 25 million U.S. homes, but slightly fewer than 10 million actually have the HD tuners necessary to watch high-def signals.
Zucker's NBC decided in 2004 not to air a separate HDTV channel for the Summer Olympics because it said the audience was too small. After being roundly criticized in the press and Internet message boards, NBC reversed that decision for its coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The network's decision to restrict the 8 p.m. hour to unscripted shows, such as Deal or No Deal, is part of an overall effort to cut $750 million from its annual operating budget. Scripted programs, such as dramas and sitcoms, are more expensive to air due to actor salaries and higher production costs.
Producing a show in high-def also requires more expense, perhaps as much as 20 percent, according to some reports.
To NBC's credit, the network recently completed a $3.5 million renovation of The Today Show's studio and production facilities so it could air in HD.
Final note: After Zucker said last week that unscripted programs would not be scheduled in the 8 p.m. time slot, a NBC spokesman clarified his remarks, saying some comedies could still make the cut.
They think they automatically get HDTV. I have 2 brothers with them and they look terrible. I read up all this digital TV stuff and just found out my Dish Digital is not digital.....even though I have a SDTV.
hey I have a 5in black and white I will trade with you.
These people that say "there's no reason for HDTV" would have been the same ones saying the same thing about color TV back in the 60s.
Nobody is saying you can't have your expensive toys. Look, I hope I never have to go back to dial-up after having a cable modem but I don't whine about the people who are happy with dial-up because it may be all they need given their amount of usage or income level.
It's a matter of price/value. For you and many others, it's worth it. For me and many others, it's not. The difference is that the government is going to eventually force people into switching to HDTV because they want to re-sell the analog TV frequencies for more money. The government is not forcing people who are on dial-up internet to switch to high-speed even though high speed is better (and more expensive).
If the government told you you HAD to buy a Hummer when your old pickup works just fine for a lot less money, wouldn't you resent it or do you just blindly accept what your government tells you to do?
HD is "nice to have", especially for sports. When I got high def I also got a bunch of non-HD digital channels that are noticeably better than the analog channels.
It's full widescreen high-rez HDTV; switching between this and the SD TNT channel (which is also running on Comcast) shows the difference instantly.
Most of the alphabet networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) run their ordinary shows in SD which even on their "HD" feeds is as you describe, just a 4:3 SD picture displayed in 720p rez.
I have one as well... Butt... I can only get channel 11 (PBS) on it. No deal!
It's digital, but not high-definition, there's a difference. Some of the signals are analog, then converted to digital by DISH, then back to analog at your non-digital TV.
Your local cable person is mistaken. The government is mandating a move to digital broadcast, not necessarily high-def digital broadcast.
HDTV is a (nice) subset of digital broadcast formats. Normal TV can be broadcast digitally in what's known as 480i (normal TV resolution, interlaced, 60 interlaced fields a second), which is exactly what standard TV is broadcast in now (as an analog signal). But digital TV also can bundle multiple channels' worth of bandwidth to send higher resolution content in 720p or 1080i high-def formats. Those formats are not mandatory, just possible in the new digital world.
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