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The Fox Report Barry Fox’s technology column Report from the Digital Television Group Summit T his year’s DTG Summit – organised by the Digital Television Group, which standardises the tech needed to watch digital TV in the UK – coincided with news that the government and communications regulator Ofcom are looking at a timetable for switching TV viewing from traditional over-the-air linear broadcasts to Internetbased IP streaming delivery. In October 2023, Ofcom launched a ‘Call for Evidence’ on how changing audience habits, in particular, the increase in Internet-based viewing, will affect the future of TV distribution. Over 75s are four times more likely to rely on digital broadcasting than Gen Z youngsters who have been brought up with streaming. Over 50% of 1624 year-olds don’t watch TV. They stream YouTube or Tik Tok, instead. Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s Director of Strategy and Research, compares the switch to IP streaming as ‘comparable to Digital Switchover’ when the UK very successfully ditched analogue TV. ‘The tipping point will be when it is no longer viable for broadcasters to deliver digital television,’ he says. This will come when not enough people are receiving broadcasts to justify the cost of transmitters. But he assured that Ofcom is committed to ‘not leaving people behind’ and Minister for Digital Infrastructure Julia Lopez added the assurance that although 99% of TVs sold next year will be ‘smart’ and Internet-enabled, the government will not pull the plug on Digital Terrestrial Freeview until 2034. How this commitment will bind any future government and minister is unclear. Careful how you change Although no-one was blunt enough to mention it (or perhaps hadn’t yet seen it with their own eyes) the Summit also coincided with a dramatic example of the perils of transitioning from broadcast to broadband delivery. The struggling TV station TalkTV had just ceased normal broadcasting and switched to stream delivery. Anyone tuning an ordinary TV to TalkTV’s Freeview channel 237 got a dark screen; anyone with a smart TV is – in theory – automatically redirected to Channel 294, which is a Freeview channel that automatically logs into an IP stream. In practice, and even with fibre broadband, the viewer waits what may be minutes to see a dark screen, then an invitation to press the remote control’s Red Button (which appears unnecessary), then sees a message that connection may take 30 seconds and finally, after what may be minutes, gets to watch the programme. The delay probably depends on the quality of the smart TV. I’ve also encountered problems with lost lip sync and stream freezing, with gaps so long that by the time the pictures and sound are up and running again, the topic being discussed has changed. And for some unexplained reason the news breaks contain no news. It’s a confusing mess and unless there are major advances, mixing IP and DTV effectively kills channel hopping. Freely The UK’s public service broadcasters, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, are banking on a recently announced new service called Freely, which was being demonstrated in exhibition space at the DTG Summit. Jonathan Thompson, Chief Executive of Everyone TV, the new company behind Freely, describes himself as ‘a former director of strategy for Ofcom and Channel 4’ with ‘extensive experience of working in broadcasting and the regulatory environment’. He read a speech which said very little about how Freely works, just a lot about how Freely is ‘a foundation for the future’ which bundles ‘everything from the public service broadcasters – Freeview terrestrial and Freesat satellite, along with the catchup services like iPlayer, in one place, for free’. ‘All you need is Wi-Fi,’ Thompson said (as long as the broadband speed is at least 10 Mbps). ‘Freely provides multiple entry points. We continue to support Freeview and Freesat and Freeview Play. Freely just adds to the mix. We are at the start of a journey’. Freely’s demonstrators outside in the exhibition space were able to add a little more hard fact detail. So far, the only way to receive via Freely is to buy a new Hisense TV set with the Freely system built in. This takes in Freeview Digital Terrestrial broadcasts through a conventional aerial socket and broadband streams by Wi-Fi (and presumably also Ethernet). Freely numbers its channels differently from Freeview and Freesat. So Sky News is on channel 303 instead TalkTV has provided a masterclass in how not to transition from broadcast TV to IP streaming. 10 Practical Electronics | July | 2024 of 233 on Freeview, and 202 on Freesat; troublesome TalkTV is on Freely channel 305. ‘It’s a new platform with a new list that mixes DTT and IP that makes the Public Service Broadcasters more prominent’ explains Freely. Freely says it has struck a deal with Turkish company Vestel, to put Freely in its Toshiba, JVC and Bush TVs and is ‘talking to LG and all the major TV brands’. Seasoned broadcast engineers who regularly attend the DTG events were surprised at Freely’s launch strategy – with the only available Freely product so far a costly TV set, and no consumer option to buy an add-on set top box or dongle that can be connected by HDMI cable to existing TVs, like an Amazon Fire Stick or Roku device. ‘I don’t change my TV every year’ was how one broadcast engineer put it. ‘It seems daft not to start with an add-on device’. A Freely spokesperson says Freely is ‘talking’ with all manufacturers and assures that there is no technical reason why a set-top box or dongle cannot be used to receive the new service. ‘Cart before horse’ is how one group of DTG delegates summed up Freely’s launch strategy during the coffee break. The eBay Money Back Guarantee scheme managed by eBay (UK) Ltd covers purchases made via eBay’s online market place eBay (UK) Ltd at eBay. co.uk and is not regulated by the FCA and not answerable to the FOS. So the FOS cannot consider complaints about the eBay Money Back Guarantee because it is managed by unregulated eBay (UK) Ltd. The FOS can only consider complaints from sellers on eBay. I complained to the ASA that eBay has not been making this clear. The ASA acknowledged my complaint with the now-standard convenient-forthe-ASA note that if a complainant hears nothing further from the ASA within 15 days, they should assume that the ASA is not investigating their complaint. I duly heard nothing from the ASA so must assume that the ASA is not concerned about the eBay guarantee loophole. Perish the thought that it finds tricky legal issues, along with tricky technical issues, beyond its ken – however clearly presented. Judge for yourself from the ASA’s list of topics recently dealt with – there’s not a single tech issue amongst them: https://bit.ly/pe-mar21-asa1 Perhaps what we need is new body, TATASA, The Tricky and Tech Advertising Standards Authority. Facts, facts, facts Going postal Regular readers will know that I work on the boring old principle that facts are king as a reference source, while conjecture, assumption and opinion are generally worthless. So, for the sake of completeness, I’ll briefly put on record a couple of fresh hard facts relevant to the pieces I’ve written about self-protection when buying on line. Also, some fresh selfprotection tips for the Internet Wild West. Just for the heck of it and with zero expectations I filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about the convoluted way in which eBay promises protection under the Financial Ombudsman Services if things go wrong with eBay’s Moneyback Guarantee scheme. In a memo nutshell, eBay in the UK comprises two quite different and separate entities: 1) eBay Marketplace, which is eBay (UK) Limited, accessed via the eBay.co.uk website and 2) eBay Commerce UK Limited. eBay Commerce UK Limited (ECUK) provides payment services for sellers on the eBay platform and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) can investigate complaints for seller payment services. Also, but with sub-zero expectations, I filed a test complaint about the way the impressively titled Postal Redress Service (POSTRS), run by the even more impressively titled CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution), had handled my complaint about the way Royal Mail’s impressive multi-tier internal complaints system had brushed aside diligently collated evidence showing delivery fraud inside Royal Mail. I complained that POSTRS/CEDR gave no reasons for complaint rejection. POSTRS/CEDR excused itself thus, ‘The CEDR Complaints Procedure does not allow any investigation to be carried out into a decision made by an adjudicator or the decision process adopted by that adjudicator or the evidence they choose to consider or give weight to.’ You have to hand it to them all. They are being paid good money to ensure no sane person would ever bother complaining about anything relating to Royal Mail. More broadly it is now a sad fact of modern on-line life that most avenues of official complaint now lead to a brick wall of illusory concern for consumer well-being, with buck-passing middle managers hiding behind No-Reply email addresses. Just as the postmasters were Narrow, expensive option Practical Electronics | July | 2024 repeatedly told what so many home computer users are so often told – ‘you are the only person complaining’. Fortunately, there are simple, effective ways to challenge amorphous big bodies that now routinely communicate from email addresses that bounce replies. The key is to go low-tech. The easy answer used to be to send the Chief Executive an entertainingly worded fax, addressed to the company’s main fax number. The fax would then become an open letter for anyone in the office to read on its way to their boss. Faxes are no more, but do not despair, there is still low-tech snail mail. Write an entertainingly worded letter to whoever is named as The Big Boss on the company’s self-congratulatory website, and post it in an envelope personally addressed to The Big Boss. Companies don’t now get many old-fashioned letters, so it’s a safe bet yours will be read and enjoyed by many office staff before eventually ending up on the desk of someone senior. They will know it has already been widely read, so is not safe to ignore. I’ve played this ruse three times recently, to an incompetent broadband provider, a hopeless press office at a national research lab and a devious university department head. In each case just one suitably worded snail mail letter to The Big Boss has triggered quite magical near-instant action from previously No-Reply employees. NEW! 5-year collection 2017-2021 All 60 issues from Jan 2017 to Dec 2021 for just £44.95 PDF files ready for immediate download See page 6 for further details and other great back-issue offers. Purchase and download at: www.electronpublishing.com 11