Last but not least: Please not again
Swisscom TV & Co. are once again left out in the cold during the World Cup—while cable customers look toward the future. A nuisance with no solution—but with some potential solutions.
You wish you were back in the good old days. The television signal was of poor quality, but fair. If it snowed unexpectedly during the picture, Dad would climb onto the roof during the half-time break, swearing, to adjust the aerial. Whoever got the signal from the socket did so in harmony with the neighbors, the neighborhood, the city - before Cablecom, everyone was equal.
Today, television options are more diverse than ever before. Countless providers and technologies are vying for viewers' favor. With the same content - but not at the same time. More precisely: the Swisscom signal arrives at the end customer with a delay compared to the cable signal. It first has to be IPTV standard must be compressed so that it fits through the telephone lines. Since cable lines have more capacity, less compression is necessary - a few seconds ahead is the result.
Normally, nobody cares about that. The few seconds that the neighbor knows beforehand whether the candidate has won "1 vs. 100" - you may begrudge them that. Especially since the neighbor doesn't watch "1 vs. 100" anyway and you usually don't either. And if they do: it simply doesn't matter.
Every two years, however, it plays a role - and a painful one at that. The football finals show who has chosen the optimal connection. A variety of factors influence the speed of transmission and ensure that every fan hears at a different time whether a goal has been scored. Or rather, they hear it acoustically at the same time as the fastest person in the neighborhood.
It's hot in summer, people are outside or have their windows open. Somewhere, people are cheering loudly - in your own picture, the players are pushing the ball to each other near the halfway line. The seconds that follow are like a kind of "real-time replay": you are told why your neighbors from the future are cheering or swearing. This updating takes all the charm out of every football match. Seriously. This is particularly bitter for people who care a lot about football matches.
There is still some time before Brazil. Time for constructive solutions:
- The cable operators artificially delay their signal to IPTV level during the World Cup. UPC Cablecom and other providers are certainly already rubbing their hands with delight at this clever idea.
- The neighborhood also agrees on a common starting point: everyone presses pause when the whistle blows and the play button when the horn blows. Requires tolerance and charity.
- Everyone looks at the "fastest". This person makes their home, garden or, in the best case, their garden restaurant available and takes care of the physical well-being of their guests. Depending on the neighborhood, this can be expensive, but it promotes community cohesion.
- You watch the games with the windows closed. Have fun in midsummer.
It's probably no use, the delays will once again cause frustration during this World Cup. But even as a Swisscom customer, you can take comfort in the fact that things can always get worse. According to Cash Review Internet TV providers such as Wilmaa record a delay of up to 51 seconds. Although - that's almost okay: with such a long delay, the billlag-saving Internet viewer no longer knows whether the neighbor is cheering about the 1-0 or the looming 2-0. Against the French.
Thomas Häusermann
PS: As luck would have it 🙂 , the 20 Minutes Online has taken up the issue and asked Swisscom spokesperson Schulze to make the following statement:
"Most football fans can certainly get over the two-second difference to cable network customers, as they benefit from important advantages such as replay TV or the live pause."
Well.
PS 2: Hopp Schwiiz!!!
