Ofcom cans Virgin Media's Premier League live footy match probe Blighty's communications regulator Ofcom has dropped its probe into how the Premier League sells live UK audio-visual media rights for football matches. The investigation, carried out under the Competition Act 1998, considered whether the selling arrangements of the Premier League restricted or distorted competition. In …
I have anecdotal evidence that the "HD" Sky Sports feed from Virgin Media isn't. It seems Sky let them have a 720p version and keep the 1080p for their own direct (consumer) customers so if you really want to see Wayne Rooney in all his *ahem* gloriousness then VM can't provide that.
Not that I feel I'm missing out in any meaningful way.
All Sky HD content is 1080i.
The transmission chains won't pass 720p.
All third party feeds are fed from a DA (distribution amplifier - yes an odd term but one still in use in telly) at the end of the TX chain.
Sky do not degrade the signals sent to third party broadcasters, trust me on this one, I do know.
However the quality can get mangled in the headeand/compression kit after we've sent it out.
Different providers can choose how to mangle the 1080i feed Sky give them.
Clearly I'm anon for this one.
I used to work as a supplier to that industry.
I was told once by somebody close to the action, that OFCOM once fined one of the channels for pixellating out the girls bush, as it was either obscene or misleading ( she's still got her knickers on, that's misleading ).
I got the impression that OFCOM aren't big fans of those channels - they used to keep threatening to reclassify those programmes as adverts, make them stop showing the 09 numbers permanently and have them run adverts occasionally to advertise the 09 number. That would have put them all out of business.
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