Sad news, but since the commercial channels do the same thing, I can’t imagine the impact will be that big. I actually thought this is what SBS would have done to free up space for Viceland HD, back when they culled the SBS SD services. Might happen now.
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I just re-read the help article. For some reason, it looks as though SA is going to get the Queensland feeds of ME and Comedy/Kids. Why don’t they just use the South-East feeds so SA only needs to adjust by 30 minutes “all year round” like the NT? Way too complicated making viewers adjust “30 minutes earlier during winter, 30 minutes later during summer”
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At least VAST viewers still have the ABC’s main channel on the correct timezone + with relevant 7pm news all year round, unlike Foxtel satellite viewers who only have access to a national version of the ABC’s main channel.
If it’s at all possible, I personally think VAST should only carry the HD versions of ABC, SBS, Viceland and World Movies. Don’t know how commonly the ABC/SBS channels on VAST are used for terrestrial retransmissions, but surely all at-home receivers are capable of receiving HD channels?
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Only Viceland is still in SD. The rest are in HD as expected.
Some self help sites were using VAST for SBS retransmission since inception, but after speaking to a techie who maintains a portion of them in WA, SBS made sure all self helps were using D1 instead of VAST before culling SBS SD. So today there should be no terrestrial retransmissions of SBS from VAST. I’m pretty sure it’s the same for ABC, too.
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Is there a reason why retransmission services are separate to VAST? On the face of it, comes across as a waste of resources and money
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I think the costs of the transmission site equipment is what makes the VAST platform a bad choice for broadcasters to use. ABC and SBS (and Nine too) currently use DVB-S2X which is a next generation tech that can squeeze way more into a single frequency. It looks like ABC only uses one frequency on Optus D1 to deliver 6 state’s worth of channels. That’s pretty efficient! And the muxes are already built, so no decryption or remuxing at a site level at all.
Compare that with using VAST and well, the complications can be seen in regional WA with the lack of ability to use MPEG-4 properly and issues with stat muxing. Plus, networks can’t monitor what each site is inevitably outputting.
I think VAST should only be a direct-to-home service with DVB-S2X for transmission sites. Or, maybe a VAST 2.0 with encrypted DVB-S2X in the future?
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I’m guessing because it’s more appealing to the public as a VHF/UHF antenna is cheaper than a dish & satellite decoder combo.
ABC has just opted for ‘ABC Comedy/Kids’ and ‘ABC ME’ without state or area abbreviations for their new combined Qld/NT/SA channels. I wish all of the broadcasters did this. I prefer cleaner, shorter channel names on-screen.
I think he was talking about VAST versus other satellite methods, not VAST versus terrestrial in general.
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This new ABC channel for Foxtel is also available on VAST for some reason? Named “ABC National” on Ch 299 and it’s in SD. Weird seeing as all ABC’s are already available in HD…
Also, some other updates:
- New radio channel Aussie Flashbacks on Ch 665. More info
- Niche Radio on Ch 613-616 has ceased.
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Flipping quickly through the budget papers last night I saw that VAST scored some funding (but deemed not for publication)
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A quick rejig to the news channels I’d like to see. Minimal interruption with WIN News start times remaining the same or how they used to be.
401 WIN News Cairns/Townsville
402 WIN News Rockhampton/Sunshine Coast/Toowoomba
403 WIN News Wollongong/Canberra
405 WIN News Bendigo/Gippsland
406 WIN News Ballarat/Shepparton
407 WIN News Tasmania
408 Nine News Victoria/SNSW
409 Nine News Queensland/Darwin
409 would probably have to air Queensland twice to allow for the half hour delay in getting the bulletins to air after they finish on the parent channel.
6.30pm Nine News Local Queensland
7.05pm Nine News Local Queensland
7.40pm Nine News Darwin
8.45pm Nine News Local Queensland
9.20pm Nine News Darwin
10.25pm Nine News Local Queensland
11.00pm …
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A quick flick over to WIN news Ballarat on my VAST satellite box and surprisingly there was a Renmark ad among all the Victorian ones
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SBS has amalgamated some channels and upgraded SBS VICELAND to HD.
| Ch no. | Old | New |
|---|---|---|
| 3,30 | SBS HD NSW | SBS HD SE |
| 3,30 | SBS HD VIC | |
| 3,30 | SBS HD TAS | |
| 3,30 | SBS HD SA | |
| 3,30 | SBS HD QLD | SBS HD QLD&NT |
| 3,30 | SBS HD NT | |
| 3,30 | SBS HD WA | SBS HD WA |
| 31 | SBS VICELAND SE | SBS VICELAND HD SE |
| 31 | SBS VICELAND SA | |
| 31 | SBS VICELAND QLD | SBS VICELAND HD QLD&NT |
| 31 | SBS VICELAND NT | |
| 31 | SBS VICELAND WA | SBS VICELAND HD WA |
| 32 | SBS World Movies HD | SBS World Movies HD |
| 33 | SBS Food | SBS Food |
| 34 | NITV | NITV |
I reckon ABC and SBS should just adopt “South” and “North” to identify their ‘multi-state’ channels, just like the commercials.
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Budget cuts at the multicultural public broadcaster? Although at least SBS rarely if ever has significant local programming differences unlike the commercial networks.
On a positive note, it’s good to see that SBS VICELAND has finally been upgraded to HD for VAST viewers.
Yeah, I agree.
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Timezone differences could be a reason why not just North/South.
I think each state also get different ads, even in NSW, Sydney gets different ads to the rest of NSW.
Imparja North covers Qld and NT timezones just like SBS HD QLD&NT. I’m just saying they should use the word North instead of state abbreviations to make it look cleaner and consistent.
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My idea of what VAST Regional News should look like post-July 1.
| Ch. | Bulletin(s) |
|---|---|
| 4 | Regional News Menu |
| 401 | Seven News Cairns Seven News Townsville |
| 402 | Seven News Mackay Seven News Rockhampton |
| 403 | Seven News Wide Bay Seven News Sunshine Coast Seven News Toowoomba |
| 404 | PRIME7 Local News NSW Nth Coast PRIME7 Local News Tamworth |
| 405 | PRIME7 Local News Orange PRIME7 Local News Wagga PRIME7 Local News Albury |
| 406 | PRIME7 Local News Updates NSW/Vic |
| 407 | Nightly News 7 Tasmania Nightly News 7 Spencer Gulf |
| 408 | News Updates 7 Darwin/Central News Updates 10 Qld/NSW/Vic |
| 409 | Nine News Darwin |
| 410 | WIN News Queensland WIN News NSW |
| 411 | WIN News Wollongong WIN News Canberra |
| 412 | WIN News Victoria WIN News Tasmania |
| 413 | NBN News Gold Coast NBN News Lismore |
| 414 | NBN News Coffs Harbour NBN News Tamworth |
| 415 | NBN News Newcastle NBN News Central Coast |
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When you put it like that, funny how NBN will then be producing the same number of “bulletins” as WiN despite a much smaller audience. Though NBNs consist mostly of Nine News content.
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Will be interesting to see what the lineup on each channel is, as it looks like the statewide WIN News bulletins are still custom to each region to some degree.
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