Why is so little broadcast in Dolby Digital

[beolab]

Why is so little broadcast in Dolby Digital?

 

[johndon]

AFAIK, it takes more bandwidth to broadcast a DD signal and a lot of broadcasters won't take more as, I beleive, that it costs more.

John

 

[Starburst]

Simple economics.

As John says it requires at least an additional 10% bandwidth and then you will need suitable playout hardware (additional cost) and don't forget the license to use the format. At the end of the day only 10% of the SKY Digital viewers have STB's that support the format so all in all it's never been high on the agenda.

High Definition broadcasts should use DD5.1 as the default standard for the audio.