January 23, 2009
The inaugural festivities on Jan. 20 will no doubt go down in
history for, among other things, being among the most-viewed HD events
inside the United States—likely surpassing even the Super Bowl among
American audiences because the events were carried on nearly every
broadcast station and cable network simultaneously.
While it wasn’t the first inaugural to be presented in HD,
there are millions more American HD viewers then since the last
inaugural four years ago (when George W. Bush’s second celebration drew
just 15.5 million viewers nationwide, compared to 42 million for Ronald
Reagan’s inaugural in 1981). But some events coverage may have proven a
bit frustrating for diehard HD viewers who are used to high-def clarity
and 16:9 and not watching video pop back and forth between SD and HD,
and 4:3 and 16:9 over several hours.
All major broadcast and cable news networks (save MSNBC)
carried most of the day’s studio and field events in HD—although in the
inaugural’s home market, Washington, D.C. (DMA no. 9) the CBS affiliate
(WUSA-TV), the Fox station (WTTG-TV), and the NBC O&O (WRC-TV)
chose to carry large portions of the pool coverage locally in SD with
their own news commentators, including nearly the entire
afternoon/evening parade, thereby preempting much of their respective
networks’ HD coverage in favor of local 4:3 SD on both their analog and
HD digital channels.
Click www.tvtechnology.com for the whole story.
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