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Are 7Plus, 9Now, 10Play, ABC iview and SBS on Demand all in HD?

Beware losing video and audio quality if you ditch the aerial in favour of streaming FTA apps.

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If you ditch a TV aerial and stream Free to Air television are they you getting all your shows in 1080 HD?

The results vary from network to network -and even from channel to channel.

Those points are worth keeping in mind before you cut the cord and when purchasing new devices.

TV Tonight asked each network to confirm the video and audio content of their Free to Air apps.

Here are their responses.

9Now:

  • Ch9 & 9Gem – Full HD 1080p, 50FPS, 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, With StartOver
  • 9Go, 9Life, 9 Rush – Full HD 1080p, 25FPS, 2.0 Audio, With StartOver
  • Live Sport Pop Ups (Australian Open, State of Origin, Olympics) – Full HD 1080p, 25FPS, 2.0 Audio
  • Fast Channels (Seinfeld, Dance Moms & PTV) – HD 720p, 25FPS, 2.0 Audio.

7Plus:

  • We are Full HD (1080p) on Ch7 and 7mate and plan to roll this out soon to 7Two.

SBS on Demand:

  • For video content, we offer full 1080p HD streaming for our main SBS, NITV and Viceland live channels across most devices (the major omissions are LG and Samsung TVs).
  • For VOD content, we offer 720p HD streams and our average top bitrate is between 1.5mbs – 2.5mbs depending on the content and our audio bitrate is 128kbps.

ABC iview:

  • We offer select VOD content in Full HD 1080p – not the entire catalogue at this stage.
  • Our live streams are offered in HD 720p.
  • All VOD content is available in at least SD480p with our lowest resolution at 180p, going up to Full HD 1080p for selected content only.
  • Lower resolutions are only served to audiences when their own network / bandwidth limits their ability to stream at 480p or higher – eg those in rural areas with poor network and reception.
  • Our audio is audio is encoded at 128kbps

10 Play:

10 did not respond but last year confirmed:

  • Linear streams and FAST channels are in HD on 10 Play. 10 VOD assets are in SD.

Key:
HD: High Definition. Resolution 1080p is full HD. 720p is generally known as upscaled HD.
SD: Standard Definition. Resolution at or below 480p.
VOD: Video on Demand is catch-up TV.
Linear: Broadcast television.
Bitrate: A higher bitrate generally means better audio quality.
FAST channels: Free Ad-supported Streaming Television. These are curated channels such as a Prisoner channel, Seinfeld channel.
StartOver: Latecomers to a Live streaming programme have the option to restart the show from the beginning.
FPS: Frames per second, the higher the better.

22 Responses

  1. A bigger issue in my opinion is how the FTA streamers are not available on the video game consoles which are what I attach to my dumb TV to view streaming apps.

    10play and ABC iview are on Xbox but not PS5

    7+ is on PS5 only

    9now and SBS On Demand aren’t on anything

  2. Ha! This is hilarious. Any FTA network claiming their streaming services comes anywhere near “Full HD” or passing off 720p as HD not SD, should be sued for false advertising of their service. Apple TV+ is generally considered the best quality of all streaming services. When Apple TV+ is played back at 1080p with HDR turned off, it is still stunning, and worlds apart compared to the slop that the FTA networks serve up. These FTA Networks advertise at 1080p.?? They’re delusional. BTW. Blu-ray when watched off a disk ( defined as “Full HD”) has a data transfer rate of up to 50Mbps and 4K can be as high as 100Mbps. All streaming services that advertise 4K come nowhere near these data transfer speeds.

  4. … one of the more amusing stories relating to the great resolution con was NBC’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games … OBS was producing almost all the material in UHD but, due to COVID, NBC was sending multiple feeds back to Stamford rather than package on-site and according to Dave Mazza, SVP and chief technical officer, NBC Sports Group and NBC Olympics – “NBC will be taking HD 1080P HDR feeds from Tokyo, producing much of it back in Stamford and other US hubs, and upconverting some of it to UHD” … however, someone didn’t get the memo and a highly-regarded US technology magazine published a glowing report about the “4K” coverage and how much better it was than “upscaled HD” … guess you can fool most of the people most of the time …

  5. Just got a Hubbl. Has anyone notices that subtitles drop of the screen when in use for FTA?. Annoying on SBS ON Demand in particular. Other than that no problems so far.

  6. Along with this full HD desire, can we please get all the apps to have a ‘start-over’ feature when watching Live TV and tuning in late! And while we’re at it, let’s add picture in picture too … and pretty please have the ad volume the same as the video!

  7. 720p is known as “HD”, not “upscaled HD” (which makes no sense as its an indicator of resolution, while upscaling refers to upsampling a lower resolution image to a higher resolution).

    I also didn’t know that Nine broadcast in 50fps, which is a complete waste of bandwidth considering that the overwhelming majority of content will be 25fps (or American content sped up from 24fps to 25fps). I presume the decision to air at 50fps is for sports programming.

    Another completely baffling move is that SBS World Movies is broadcast in 25fps when the overwhelming majority of its content is native 24fps. I get that ads will be an issue (as ads aren’t produced at that frame rate), but this is a case where the integrity of the ads are prioritised over the integrity of the actual programmes being broadcast, which… is a little bananas.

    1. … “American content sped up from 24fps to 25fps”? that hasn’t happened since US series and movies started being delivered on standards-converted 1″ tape in the eighties …

      1. It still happens. I first noticed it when watching SVU on Channel 10 last year, after watching previous seasons from other sources. The theme song is noticeably pitched up and faster compared to the original US broadcast, especially if you play them side by side.

      2. I suspect you’re talking about NTSC to PAL video conversion, which is still happening, albeit in a much less complicated form than how it existed in the earlier days of television (for one, SD PAL video also has a higher resolution than NTSC, so it wasn’t just a matter of speed either).

        NTSC content broadcast in PAL regions is still widely sped-up to 25fps. There’s no other way to go about it perhaps except to pitch-shift the audio slightly so that it doesn’t sound “off”. Our local DVDs are also sped-up unless they have been encoded in NTSC (which has become more common since the widespread adoption of modern flatscreen TVs, as most local CRT TVs would not have been able to play NTSC video). This isn’t a problem on Blu-ray, which natively supports 24fps. In the inverse, I suspect that many UK shows are slowed down to 24fps for North American markets, as their TVs are less likely to support 50Hz as compared with Australia/UK.

          1. Most NTSC scripted content is shot at 24fps, not 30fps, but utilises a technique called 3:2 pulldown to simulate 24fps at 30fps.

    2. They’ve always been shown at 25fps on the broadcast channels. There’ll likely be some reason connected to that as to why they’re also shown at that rate online.

  8. I just watched Space Invaders on 9Now and it was 720 so I dont know why theyre saying 1080. Unfortunately all the FTA catch up sites and apps are rubbish, with iview the best of a bad bunch.

  9. I recently purchased a new LG 43″ TV and noticed that the catchup/live stream doesnt look too bad in picture quality. however, on some occasions, the TV can pixelate due to the low internet connection. The weather could have an impact on the livestreaming (whether it is the wind, rain, storm).
    On my PC, the catchup picture quality was poor on many occasions, especially with 7+ due to the internet conection. On the 7+ page it says ‘We are currently experiencing a technical issue’. I need to refresh my page on hte computer. It’s frustrating for me and having to refresh so many times. Sadly, it says the same problem over and over again.

  10. 7Plus’ live stream channels (including 7Two, 7flix and 7Bravo which they didn’t mention for some reason) are absolutely in HD (even if upscaled), you only need to go from terrestrial broadcast to these IPs to see the instant jump in quality eg. from grainy and bland… to bright, sharp and crystal clear. I regularly do this so I can get those channels in HQ and it was a hack (unless you always view via conencted TV ie. embedded 7Plus) during major sport when 7Two and 7flix had to be used during Olympics and Commonwealth Games. By the way, when you’re in one of those streams (including Two, mate and flix) there’s a nuts/bolts button where you can toggle: auto, SD or HD – originally added for Tokyo 2020 and they kept it. Have a quick check on your TV and app for yourself, you’ll see.

  11. For a network and streamer who’s CEO constantly bashes on about their commitment to current, digital and future content broadcasting and technology, it’s pathetic that no one in 10/Paramount Engineering/Technology (even publicity) departments has responded to such a simple request for information. Says a lot about their management general attitude and incompetency. Well done to Nine for their detailed response. It wasn’t a hard question to answer and not unreasonable for TV Tonight to ask!

  12. I watch the FTA streams through a web browser (Firefox). 9 and SBS give a 1080p stream through this. ABC and 7 are stuck on 720p. 10, most pathetically, provide only an SD stream. With 9 and SBS having little problem providing FHD, it’s a pity that other networks are behind, and that certain streaming pathways (app vs web browser) a so differentiated when it comes to image quality.

  13. Slightly tangential to the topic but for some sports broadcasts like the cricket in January, 7 didn’t have the streaming rights and so in order to watch certain matches you had to have a kayo or fox sports subscription.

  15. I find the SBS VOD on my TV is terrible. It almost gets the “wobbles” at some point and I have to stop the show and go back into it to get it to run through without the constant pausing happening. Also I often get the message that the internet is not connected, but I can switch to any other streaming site and and it connects.

    I gather it is trying to run a streaming service on the smell of an oily rag.

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