Does it cost the HD ready Network station more to broadcast HD signal ? (1 Viewer)

[Nick]

Most major network are broadcasting HD programs after 8:00PM daily.
But there's still some shows like Alias, without a trace, CSI... just to name a few that are being broadcast after 12:00AM in SD only on HD station.
Why don't just leave the HD switch on? Why shut it off.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just a guess, but the shows you mention after midnight are probably in syndication and bought by your specific affiliate. They might not have HD masters for those episodes.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Indeed, I think the only syndicated shows in HD last season were Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!; there just wasn't any sort of infrastructure set up for delivering HD material to local stations. I don't know how much that has changed this year.

 

[Jason Smalley]

I seem to remember reading in a thread about "Star Trek: The Original Series - Remastered" that it isn't necessarily an issue of infrastructure to get the HD show to the local affiliate but a matter of the storage of the HD show at the local affiliate.

I really hope that someone who knows more than this knucklehead can authoritatively answer this question.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

The episodes provided to the sation by the network are in HD. Episodes outside of prime time are syndicated. When a show runs long enough it goes into syndication even though first run episodes are still in production. So those late night episodes of CSI etc. are not provided by the network but by the syndicator which only sends out the show in SD.

As previously mentionned, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are syndicated and are available from the syndicator in HD, but very few stations are equipped to record and re-play them in HD. Our local ABC station has the local news produced in HD but still hasn't got the equipment to record and delay Wheel and Jeopardy in HD.

The vast majority of HD capable stations can only broadcast HD when they recieve it from the network of which they are an affilliate.