Advanced Television

BBC exec: “Sky will beat BBC to 4K”

December 5, 2013

bbc-mark-harrisonSpeaking at the Digital TV World Summit, BBC executive Mark Harrison has said that while both Sky and the BBC were looking “really closely” at Ultra HD, BBC deployment is realistically still “a way off”.

“I’m sure that Sky will get there first in some – I don’t mean this in a pejorative way, but – attention-grabbing 4K moment. That’s kind of their business model and good luck to them,” commented Harrison, controller of production for BBC North.

“The BBC, to some degree, is constrained by our universality. We have to keep thinking about serving everybody rather than serving a niche or specialist audience that might have access to that kind of product. It doesn’t necessarily upset us to see them go first.”

Harrison said that his colleagues at the BBC were more concerned with better quality HD content, claiming that viewers were more likely to notice an increase in picture quality when watching HD at a higher frame rate than watching 4K.

Harrison also added that he believed sports, drama and high-end factual content would drive 4K adoption.

Categories: Articles, UHD, Ultra-HD/4K