Why is NBC requesting Betacam format from me? I’m all digital.

[Todd Terry]

[Ann Clark] “What are you getting at, Terry?”

Huh? I’m not “getting at” anything, or trying to stir the pot… just observing that maybe there are regional differences, since virtually all the broadcast and cable outlets that my company delivers to request (and prefer) commercial spots in HD. We’re not huge nor everywhere… but do deliver regularly to a few dozen outlets in a few southeastern and midwestern states. Maybe on a national scale the preference for SD is at a higher ratio.

As for network spots, earlier it was noted that “national nets, the story is somewhat different, with both being accepted, but 4×3 still the norm.” I was fortunate enough to have a semi-rare free evening tonight and there was a lot of TV watching in my household… ABC and NBC during primetime, and CBS late night… so I sort of kept a mental running tally of the national spots. I wouldn’t go as far to say “virtually all” spots were HD, but pretty close. HD/16:9 spots outnumbered the SD/4:3 spots by about 7-to-1. The local breaks had more SD spots but were still predominantly HD… the local spots I counted were about 4-to-1 HD.

[Ann Clark] ” Your HD ad should be designed so it can be center-cut”

Yeah, they always are, although sometimes when we do productions where our outside advertising agency clients provide graphics and art cards we have to gently educate them about that. For the rare outlet that requests SD 4×3, we usually give them a letterboxed version for that usage.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com