It’s Official: Royal Wedding SD Only

TVNZ says “prohibitive” costs have stopped TV One from screening the Royal Wedding in HD on April 29.

The BBC will provide an international HD feed but broadcasters like TVNZ can choose to draw it down from the satellite in SD.

“HD requires more satellite bandwidth and obviously more bandwidth means higher costs,” TVNZ’s news and current affairs spokesperson Andi Brotherston says.

“The Royal Wedding is an expensive event for TVNZ to cover and that’s not just because of the lengthy live satellite cost.

“The television media in London for this event has put unprecedented demand on transmission time and formats, television agency resources and staff, transport and accommodation and so we are paying premium rates on everything.

“We have also had to factor in contingency costs and options in case the draw on resources across the city impacts on our coverage plans.

“One way we have been able to keep costs down was to take up the option of sharing an SD signal of the Royal Wedding with two other broadcasters in Australasia and splitting the cost three ways.”

Brotherston says TVNZ was able to fund HD satellite coverage of the 2008 Olympics for two weeks because a full-time link from Beijing had been booked and budgeted.

“On a per hour basis, that was considerably lower than the cost of an ad hoc line for a one-off event like this Royal Wedding.”

Meanwhile, TV One has just announced its wedding-of-the-year coverage will start an hour earlier than first advertised, at 7.30pm.