The CEO of Freeview has claimed that “key” TV vendors will be in stores with a variety of Freeview compliant products by May 1 2009 which is when Freeview is set to be launched in Australia. She also claims that Freeview has executed agreements with 4 key manufacturers however the four top brands contacted by ChannelNews say that they will not have Freeview compliant TV’s in time for the Freeview launch.
TV vendors say that May 1 is less than 11 weeks away from when Freeview issued their specification wish list to manufacturers who claim that it could take up to 12 months to get a TV Freeview compliant product to market.
And even then it could add up to $200 to the cost of a HD Digital TV said iSuppli who track build components for the consumer technology industry.
One medium sized TV manufacturer, LCD TV who makes the Baumann Meyer LCD TV range was so incensed with the Freeview contract that he demand and got clauses relation to what he could disclose removed from the specification contract prior to signing the agreement.
Malcolm Middleton the Managing Director of LCD TV described Freeview as an organisation that is misleading consumers “How can they claim that they will deliver 15 new channels when 11 of those channels are already available to consumers who have purchased a new HD TV” he said.
He added “As a small player in the market we will not have any Freeview compliant TV’s ready for their launch. While there is a case for MPEG 4 technology there is no real value to a consumer in what Freeview is proposing”.
A senior executive of a top four TV manufacturer said “The only way that major TV vendors will have a Freeview compliant TV under the proposed specification guidelines will be if they take TV’s made for the New Zealand market which already has Freeview and TV that have built in an MPEG 4 decoder. However this is fraught with problems as New Zealand operates on different bandwidths” he said.
The TV manufacturing executives who are quoted in our stories on Freeview have either signed or work for Companies that have signed non disclosure agreement with Freeview to prevent the leaking of information.
However they have chosen to break these agreements because they believe that what Freeview and their backers are trying to do will not be beneficial to consumers or the consumer electronic industry.
Freeview is backed by all the free to air TV stations in Australia including the Seven, Nine and TEN commercial networks and their affiliates as well as the ABC and the SBS networks.
Their objective in launching Freeview is to minimise the capability of consumer technology devices to copy free to air TV content or get access to content that is DRM coded.
To do this they are set to launch a multimillion dollar advertising campaign on free to air TV stations that will lead consumers to believe that to access 14 new HD TV channels consumers will need a Freeview compliant set top box or TV or access to a Freeview electronic program guide (EPG).
However this is not true as consumers can already access 10 of these HD channels via either a Foxtel set top box or a box from either Topfield or Beyondwiz. They can also get access to the channels via current HD Digital TV’s from Samsung, LG, Sony, Sharp and Panasonic in particular current models that already have an EPG capability built in.
In addition consumers who buy a new Full HD or HD TV or a set top box with a built in recorder will be able to access the additional HD stations which will be launched on May 1.
In two emails to ChannelNews and SmartHouse Robin Parkes the CEO of Freeview wrote in part “Having talked to Sony, Panasonic, ADSIF and several others this morning they all deny talking to you and so therefore I am at a bit of a loss as to where you got your ‘facts’ from, and surprised you didn’t do the courtesy of calling us directly to discuss”
ChannelNews and SmartHouse did attempt to contact Robin Parker and her PR team. We sent two emails as their web site and press releases contain no telephone numbers for anyone to contact Freeview.
She then went on to write “We have in fact executed agreements with 4 key manufacturers, and are in the process of working through the legalities with a couple of others, we have no doubt we will be in store with a variety of product 1 May as planned, and have major support from the retailers for this”.
ChannelNews and SmartHouse checked these claims and what we discovered is that the major TV manufacturers have not signed any manufacturing agreements however they have all signed non disclosure agreements relating to the scoping documents.
In her first emails Robin Parker said that she was willing to talk to ChannelNews and SmartHouse.
When ChannelNews went back to Rob Parker on issues relating to her first email she then sent a curt email that said “I am not prepared to release who has signed up as that is breaching their confidentiality, and they want to keep this commercially confident so as not to advise their competitors”.
When we requested an original copy of the specifications that Freeview is proposing to TV manufacturers, she wrote back claiming” I will not supply you with the technical specifications – because frankly, it isn’t your concern. If you had seen them you would know that mpeg4 is actually in phase 1 not phase 2 as you reported. Don’t bother calling me – you can do a follow up article on 1 May when we are in store”.
At no stage did she deny that the reason that the free to air TV stations in Australia were introducing Freeview was to prevent the easy copying of free to air TV content that will allow consumers to remove TV commercials from their recording or at least scroll through them which is what the TV stations who are the backers of Freeview fear.
She also failed to deny that Freeview was more about controlling AD Skipping than delivering HD digital Channels.
