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The Corporation has been threatening to cut the UK’s first dedicated-HD channel from the airwaves for what seems like forever. Now, finally, we’ve got a date. BBC HD will cease to be at 6am on Tuesday March 26th, straight-up replaced by BBC Two HD.
In all honesty, it’s not going to make much of a difference. The BBC’s changed the way BBC Three and Four operate as feeder channels for One and Two, which means all the HD shows you know and love will still be shown in HD on BBC One HD and BBC Two HD. In fact, it’ll make things a little easier to work out, because everything that’s on BBC Two will be shown in HD, rather than just most things, with the odd exception here and there.
So there you have it, March 26th will mark the end of an era — the death of the UK’s first dedicated HD channel, and the birth of BBC Two HD.
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I got confused, I was thinking that they were stopping BBC One HD and instead just having BBC Two HD. But no, they are stopping BBC HD, which was a bit of a bad experiment at best.
Got it!
Yeah, BBC Two HD’s replacing BBC HD. When the Corporation launched BBC HD, it was on its own. It made sense to have a separate HD channel back then. Now, not to so much.
Given the programmes on BBC HD, I thought it was BBC 2 HD!
Common sense prevails. Great!
Re: the sign in the picture – is this the BBC’s attempt at an “urban channel” – it may be a little antiquated?
Ha, no, that’s one of the BBC’s first colour cameras that I snapped a pic of while I was there for a Super Hi-Vision broadcast.
Now for some reason I can’t get this tune out of my head….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcCHRW8G9yY
…ah yes! Vision On!
YESS! University Challenge in HD!
This is shite.
Previously, BBC HD would choose the best of whatever was on either of BBC 2, 3 or 4 for BBC HD, at worst shifted an hour or two in a different direction. Now (and it’s started already) what do we get No fucking HD broadcast (even on iplayer) of the current series of Being Human in HD.
This.
I’ve also caught some good programmes on BBC HD that were repeated there despite not being shown on BBC 1, 2, 3 or 4 for a while.
I quite like the idea of having a ‘Best of’ channel.
I agree although we definitely need BBC 2 HD I will miss BBC HD there was always something decent on there when there was nothing on the other channels.
Also, I’d have ‘liked’ your comment, but I’m stuck on IE8 at work and for some reason the ‘like’ button never works.
Just need Channel 5 in HD now please.
Good luck with that. Richard Desmond (co owner of Channel X and other intellectual media) refuses to pay for the HD transponder channel, legendary tight wad that he is.
Erm, it is… on Sky and Virgin at least.
Yeah, I get Channel 5 in HD on Virgin.
About time too…
Now can we have Channels 101-105 default to HD on Sky HD boxes please!
I don’t think Sky are in any hurry to do this – look at what the first channel is on the HD listings – why it’s Sky 1!
101 and 102 are regional versions of those channels, whereas the HD channels are not regional. It’s a similar story with ITV. As such, I can’t see those channels being moved from their prime positions any time soon.
At last. It makes so much more sense, because BBC HD is essentially BBC 2 HD anyway, apart from now and again when the brilliant programme on BBC 2 ISN’T on BBC HD for some insane reason.
That said, I just hope some of the documentaries on BBC Four that sometimes made it onto BBC HD are moved to BBC 2 HD instead.
Now all that’s left to do is move my local BBC 1 news broadcast to BBC 1 HD, so I don’t have to change channel every damn time.
I’ve never even heard of BBC HD, I thought you were talking about BBC1 HD