Why are BBC broadcasts better than ITV?

Tommy B · 19 Jul 2006 at 13:06

Why is the quality of BBC superior to ITV? I noticed this during the world cup. I'm not a subscriber of Sky HD yet, but I do have normal Sky and a huge HD TV, so you notice differences in quality. BBC broadcasts are pin-sharp, especially football matches and the news, yet ITV is horrible and looks like something streamed from the internet. Is there any reason for this?

I'm assuming that because BBC broadcast in HD, they've switched over all their cameras and broadcasting modes to HD, which improves NON-HD broadcasts too?

DRZ · 19 Jul 2006 at 13:34

It is purely a guess but I would imagine it might have something to do with bandwidth? ITV could be using less bandwidth than the BBC channels and so losing some quality that way. In terms of freeview I think they broadcast a fair few more channels than the BBC. Willing to be corrected on that though.

fish99 · 19 Jul 2006 at 13:44

I had a thread about this on AV Forums since I was curious too-

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357078

The general consensus was ITV weren't paying for enough bandwidth.

sinister_stu · 19 Jul 2006 at 14:03

fish99 said:
I had a thread about this on AV Forums since I was curious too-

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357078

The general consensus was ITV weren't paying for enough bandwidth.

I think ITV just try to get as much advertising revenue as possible so have created as many channels as they can within the bandwidth they have.

clockworks · 19 Jul 2006 at 17:52

Bandwidth is the problem. ITV are struggling to make money, so they are cutting corners. Advertising revenues are falling, as less viewers watch the adverts.
Sky+ and Freeview PVRs are having a big impact, as more people can now skip through the adverts. Those that don't have PVRs tend to channel surf during the breaks. Advertisers know this, so won't pay the huge fees for airtime anymore.

It wouldn't surprise me if ITV went bust, or sold out to Sky, in a few years. Their only hope is to see that their future is in quality programming, not endless pap on more channels.

Dublove · 20 Jul 2006 at 12:01

I can confirm this. With Eyetv on the mac you can view the stream info and the BBC channels seem to use between 3-5mps on average usually it leans more towards 5 but ITV seems to always be about 2.5mbps

Alrik · 21 Jul 2006 at 05:10

As said already ITV has to cut corners to stay afloat since their revenue is through advertising and BBC is through Tv licensing.

Although I've always wondered is it the BBC who gets money all the from the Tv license? I always thought they did but I thought it better to ask so I know.

Tv license = £131.50 a year, lets say 25-30,000,000 households pay this so

So every year they make £3,287,500,000-£3,945,000,000 (estimated). Guess this is why we see no advertisements on any BBC channel (except their own of course)