Freeview (Australia)

This article is about the Australian digital terrestrial television brand. For other uses of the branding, see Freeview.

Freeview Australia Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Digital television
Founded	24 November 2008
Headquarters	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Area served	Australia
Key people	Robin Parkes - CEO
Employees	Unknown
Website	www.freeview.com.au

Freeview is the brand given to the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia. It is intended to bring all of the free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters on to a consistent marketing platform to compete against subscription television, in particular Foxtel, and coincides with the expansion to 3 digital channels for each FTA network. Freeview emphasises its members' 17 free over-the-air channels, and provides an enhanced electronic program guide (EPG) across all channels. Freeview also certify televisions, set-top boxes and personal video recorders (PVR) which meet their requirements.

The Freeview brand was launched in November 2008 with teaser commercials promising 15 channels in 2009. The first new "Freeview" channel started on 26 March 2009 with Network Ten's One sports channel. Further advertising began on 26 April 2009, with the first Freeview certified devices appearing in retailers from May 2009. In June 2010, the second phase of devices, marked as "Freeview EPG" devices, became available in retail stores, designed to work with the newly launched interactive EPG.

Launch

The brand was launched on 24 November 2008 at 6:29 p.m. through the use of a 60-second advertisement shown on all networks, in a roadblock.

The proper service was launched in 2009 along with a number of Freeview badged set-top boxes and integrated digital televisions. At least four manufacturers intend to release Phase 1 Freeview devices which do not support MHEG-5.

Freeview has been criticised as being ambiguous and light on details, with criticism that certification is more about restricting devices than enabling them. The introduction of channels replacing the previous High Definition simulcasts led to complaints that regular programming was no longer broadcast in high-definition.

Ownership

The non-profit Freeview organisation comprises the free-to-air licencees; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Special Broadcasting Service, Seven Network, Nine Network, Network Ten, WIN Corporation, Prime Media Group and Southern Cross Broadcasting.

An ABC release stated these groups are shareholders of Freeview, though a company search revealed all shares are owned by the Nine Network.

Freeview certification requirements

Part of the Freeview initiative is to certify set-top boxes as capable of receiving free-to-air digital television broadcasts (both standard and high definition). Although certification requirements have not been formally released, Phase 1 Freeview devices will be high-definition, and capable of more advanced video encoding (MPEG-4). Recorders will not be able to skip over ads, and must enforce digital rights management.

Phase 2 requires Freeview devices to feature the MHEG-5 technology, which Freeview uses to support its interactive electronic program guide and its future enhancements.

The Freeview advertising for their 17-channel platform and certified products, combined with the Australian government's commercials warning of the closure of analog TV transmissions, is intended to help consumers buy appropriate devices.

Freeview has threatened PVR manufacturers such as DViCO with legal action if they include the Freeview (UK) logo (which looks very similar to the Freeview Australia logo) on their Australian packaging.

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia added Freeview compatibility to the PlayStation 3's PlayTV digital television tuner in October 2009 with the 1.21 firmware update. The update disabled ad-skipping, reduced fast forward and rewind speed to 30x and removed the ability to copy recordings to other devices. Unlike other Freeview-endorsed devices, these restrictions can be easily bypassed on the PlayStation 3.

High-definition

To obtain Freeview certification, devices must include at least one high-definition digital tuner, supporting the HD formats of 576p, 720p and 1080i.

Video Decoding

Freeview devices must be capable of receiving and decoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, a far less data hungry standard than current MPEG-2. The standard allows higher quality transmissions or more television channels in future, and Freeview has said that the television networks will not broadcast with this codec until the majority of the population has a device that can receive it.

The federal government has not approved any change in television broadcasting standards, and Australian broadcasters have not announced a timetable for switching to MPEG-4 broadcasting.

Digital video recorder restrictions

Freeview devices can not skip an ad block - they can skip 10 minute blocks, and fast forward and rewind at 30x speeds

Hard drive-based recorders must offer a minimum of 160 GB internal storage, with Digital Rights Management applied to recordings copied off the device. Restrictions must also be in place to ensure recordings can not be accessed if the hard drive is removed from the recorder.

Enhanced EPG (MHEG-5) - phase 2

Freeview Phase 2 certified devices will use a new electronic programming guide (EPG).

Phase 1 Freeview devices are not required to feature the MHEG-5 technology that Freeview intends to use to support its EPG. From April 2009, Freeview was still negotiating an MHEG-5 licensing deal. and it was not signed until July 2009.

Freeview has agreed that manufacturers can sell Phase 1 devices without MHEG-5 for another three years, and are not required to label such devices as Phase 1.

Freeview announced details of its EPG on 28 June 2010, with plans for a consumer launch in September 2010. The new EPG will be based on the same EPG data available to all digital TV devices via the broadcast signal, but it will also monitor Content Reference Indicator (CRID) data embedded in the broadcast signal. The CRID data will allow recorders to detect when a program is running over schedule and continue recording.

After initial confusion as to whether non-Freeview devices would still have access to the EPG, Freeview chief executive Robin Parkes confirmed the broadcast EPG would remain. Only Freeview-endorsed PVRs featuring the "Freeview EPG" logo will have access to the new Freeview EPG, although the Freeview-endorsed TiVo recorder will extract CRID data from the broadcast signal to update its own EPG (with permission from the networks), rather than relying on Freeview's EPG data.

Australian EPG provider IceTV's high court victory over the Nine Network, securing its right to supply a third-party EPG service, may influence Freeview's long term plans for the broadcast and MHEG-5 EPG services. The ruling may also affect whether third-party EPG providers have the right to extract CRID data from the broadcast signal without permission from the networks, as the CRID data will not be encypted according to Freeview marketing director Chelsea Wymer.

Freeview has finalised its license to use MHEG-5 but initially lacked a license to use the traditional information grid pattern EPG which is covered under patents under owned by Macrovision. Freeview announced details of an agreement with Macrovision in July 2009.

Non-compliant devices

Existing digital television devices should continue to operate without Freeview certification, with the following caveats:

• Only HD devices can view the HD channels
• If the TV networks start transmission in MPEG-4 in the future, non-MPEG-4 capable boxes will not be able to receive those channels
• Non Compliant devices (and Phase 1 Freeview devices) will not have the enhanced EPG, which may be encoded to prevent non certified boxes reading it. Initially the enhanced EPG will contain the same data as the broadcast EPG, although eventually it may feature higher quality and more accurate information to use for scheduling recordings.

Government labelling scheme

Main article: Digital terrestrial television in Australia#Government labelling scheme

As well as Freeview labelling, the Australian Government has its own scheme for identifying digital ready televisions and set top boxes. Freeview branded set top boxes are labelled as 'High Definition Ready' under the government scheme, however non-Freeview boxes can also be labelled in the same way, leading to viewer confusion as to whether the Freeview channels will be receivable on those set top boxes without the branding.

Channels

Since 2009, each commercial free-to-air broadcaster has been permitted to transmit two channels in Standard Definition (SD) and one in High Definition (HD). Restrictions on the number of multi-channels permitted by commercial broadcasters will end after digital switchover. The public broadcasters - ABC and SBS - are not subject to multichannelling restrictions.

Channel numbers

The digital television standard allows for multiple channel numbers to point to the same television stream. All the broadcasters use this - it can appear that there are several separate channels when they each point to the same transmission.

The commercial broadcasters are permitted to broadcast three separate channels. When the HD and SD channels show the same program, they use different streams - one in standard-definition, the other in high-definition.

Channel table

Not all channels are available in all areas, duplicate channel numbers listed in notes. Commercial channels are assigned separate LCNs in regional areas to metro areas, government owned channels have the same LCN nationwide.

LCN (Metro1)	LCN (Regional2)	Common Channel Name	Genre/Type	Picture Format	Notes
2		ABC1	Primary	576i SD	Duplicate on LCN 21.
24		ABC News 24	News	720p HD
22		ABC2	Additional ABC1 programming (7pm-2am)	576i SD	Shared Channel Space with ABC 4 Kids
22		ABC4 Kids	Pre-School 0-5 (6am-7pm)	576i SD	Shared Channel Space with ABC2
23		ABC3	Children 6-15 (6am-9pm)	576i SD
3		SBS One	Primary / Foreign language	576i SD	Duplicates on LCN 33, 34.
30		SBS HD	High definition simulcast (Primary)	720p HD
32		SBS Two	Foreign language	576i SD
7	6	Seven	Primary	576i SD	As Prime7, GWN7 or Southern Cross Television in regional areas. As Seven Queensland in regional Queensland. Duplicates on LCN 70, 71 (or 60, 61 - in most regional areas).
72	62	7Two	British (primetime) / Entertainment	576i SD	Darwin LCN: 72
73	63	7mate	Male oriented / Entertainment	1080i HD	Tasmania LCN: 60, Darwin LCN: 70
9	8	Nine	Primary	576i SD	As WIN Television, NBN Television, or Imparja Television in most regional areas. Or as monopoly license3 stations Southern Cross Nine and WIN SA
90	80	GEM	General Entertainment & Movies	1080i HD
99	88	GO!	Youth oriented / Entertainment and Movies (primetime/overnight)	576i SD
10	5	Ten	Primary	576i SD	As Southern Cross Ten in most regional areas. Or as joint venture license3 stations Ten Mildura, Ten Tasmania, Ten Darwin, Ten Central, Ten West, or monopoly license3 stations Ten Griffith and Ten SA. The majority of the joint venture services are also known as- <City/Area Name> Digital Television (eg. Tasmania Digital Television).
1	50	One	General, Movies & Sport	1080i HD	Metro Duplicate on LCN 12
11	55	Eleven	Entertainment (6.30pm-11.30pm) Classic American TV (11.30pm-6.30pm)	576i SD
44	--	Community TV	Local Community TV	576i SD	As TVS in Sydney, C31 in Melbourne, West TV in Perth, 31 Digital in Brisbane and 44 in Adelaide.

Notes:

1. Metro refers to urban, suburban and greater parts of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane only. (It does not include Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, or the large regional cities.)
2. Regional includes most other areas outside of the larger state captials, with the following exceptions:

• In Griffith the commercial multichannels are not yet broadcast.
• In Regional Western Australia, and Regional South Australia not all multichannels are available in all locations.
• In Remote Central and Eastern Australia the Freeview range of channels is almost exclusively delivered by the VAST satellite platform.

3. For more commercial TV licensing information, see Television broadcasting in Australia.

Online Video Portal

Through Freeview, the free-to-air broadcasters have signed a new initiative for an industry-wide video hub - details of what content will be carried is unknown. A consultant has been commissioned to advise on vendor partnerships, and ABC's iView technology is the frontrunner to deliver the service.

Currently, the ABC, SBS, Seven Network, Nine Network and Ten Network each offer "catch up" internet television services in Australia, allowing viewers to watch local and foreign content after it has been shown on their respective channels, while OneHD allows online streaming of select sporting content, including live streams of Formula One.

Criticisms

Freeview has been criticised as being ambiguous and light on details, with criticism that certification is more about restricting devices than enabling them. TEN Network's simulcast of "One" in HD & SD was criticised by some as being a single channel, as it is not unique content and the introduction of One HD means TEN Network's non-sports programming is no longer broadcast in HD. Freeview certification will include at least two phases, with the Phase 1 Freeview devices not required to feature the MHEG-5 technology Freeview intends to use to support its Electronic Program Guide.

In addition to the lack of detail, minimal information was given by Seven and Nine Network management regarding new channel launch dates. The original Freeview announcement stated planned May releases for the launch of new digital channels by both networks, while a later Seven release mentioned mid-2009 and then October for its secondary channel launch.

External links

• Freeview