At the moment anyone who doesn’t subscribe to Sky or Virgin Media – that’s approximately 3m BT and TalkTalk homes, 2m Freesat homes and around 10m Freeview homes – can only watch Channel 5’s content in non-HD.
Those roughy 13m homes (Freeview, BT and TalkTalk) receiving the channel via the aerial have to make do with an especially poor quality smear-o-vision version.
This is because Channel 5, unlike Channel 4 and ITV, decided to pass up the opportunity to launch a terrestrial version of its HD channel and instead sign deals to launch only on the Sky and Virgin Media platforms.
This strategy no doubt provides the broadcaster with a regular line of revenue but it also reduces the attractiveness of its content in the eyes of millions of viewers, many of whom will never watch the poor quality standard definition version they’re fobbed off with.
Whenever this topic comes up you can guarantee someone will say: ‘If you want the best picture quality, pay for it’.
But with HD versions of BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4 and ITV all available without subscription how likely is that people would sign-up to an expensive pay-TV deal just to watch Gotham?
Wouldn’t they be more likely – assuming they don’t just download an illegal copy – to skip the TV broadcast and buy the Blu-ray or wait for it to arrive on Netflix or Amazon Prime?
Buying expensive, premium content and then airing it in terrible picture quality is not an approach which will grow audiences.
If Viacom truly wants to boost viewing figures – something which has eluded every previous owner yet is essential to seeing a return on its investment – it’s going to have to bring Channel 5 HD outside the paywall.