UHD: UPC criticizes SRG and Swisscom
The fact that SRG has suddenly decided to go with UHD for the European Championship—in partnership with Swisscom—has upset its competitor, UPC. This collaboration is being viewed in the context of Admeira.
Last week, Swisscom and SRG announced that they would show individual matches of the upcoming European Championship in Ultra-HD (UHD) (Werbewoche.ch reported). However, the new technology, which enables a picture twice as sharp as the previous Full HD standard, is reserved for Swisscom customers who buy the new box. And new customers, who receive it immediately.
It is explosive that as recently as the fall, SRG spokesman Daniel Steiner spoke out clearly against the new 4K technology to Schweiz am Sonntag. Investments would currently still be associated with too high risks and could not be justified due to the low device population. In other words, most TVs today are not even capable of displaying UHD, but are limited to Full HD. Compared to Evening view summarizes Steiner in January 2016: "SRG will also broadcast the matches of the 2016 European Football Championship in regular HD; broadcasting in 4K is not planned."
SRG denies serious accusations
The sudden change of heart is particularly annoying for competitor UPC Cablecom. UPC spokesman Bernhard Strapp told Schweiz am Sonntag that the cooperation is being viewed in the context of the new joint advertising marketer Admeira. Malicious tongues, Strapp said, could claim that SRG is thus giving Swisscom a competitive advantage. In any case, UPC has not been contacted by SRG.
SRG denies the serious and clear accusations. Spokesman Daniel Steiner says the EM project is merely a trial, not regular operation. The infrastructure is paid for by Swisscom and rented by SRG. In addition, the distribution of the UHD program is also open to other providers.
No support for UPC from competitors
But UPC doesn't want to know anything about that at the moment. Demand is too low, even though its own network infrastructure is ready for the technology, says Strapp. Something he obviously doesn't trust the competition to do: He would "bet" that Swisscom customers' Internet would break down when they wanted to watch the European Championship in UHD.
UPC does not receive any support for the SRG criticism from its competitors. Sunrise seems to want to jump on the UHD bandwagon and, according to spokesman Roger Schaller, is currently in negotiations with SRG to be able to provide the broadcast of the eight European Championship games in 4K in time. And Teleboy is also currently looking into feasibility, at least for the Samsung TV app. (hae)
