Enabling the consumer

摘要

The HD revolution will be driven by consumer demand, That at least is the view amongst Europe's broadcasters, DTH players such as Premiere and BSkyB believe there is a significant tier of subscribers who have invested in HD-ready TVs and would be willing to pay a premium for content to watch on them. In order to do so, however, they will need to be supplied with HD set-top boxes. Premiere and BSkyB have taken different approaches Both are determined to reap the benefits of MPEG-4 AVC compression technology and DVB-S2, which increases the bandwidth available via a single transponder frequency. But Premiere, determined to be up and running well in advance of the football World Cup in Germany next year, has decided to keep things relatively simple by deploying a broadcast-only set-top box. BSkyB on the other hand, believes the combination of HD and PVR will be of key importance, and is willing to wait till the technology platform is ready.