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 The BBC is set to screen this summer's football World Cup and Wimbledon championships in High-definition television. Trial run of the service will include the BBC's share of World Cup matches and key Wimbledon matches in June. The BBC is trialing HDTV for a year, starting in mid-May.
The HDTV system - said to benefit sport particularly - delivers more detailed pictures and sharper action shots, and will be an additional stream to the current analogue and digital services.
BBC director of sport, Roger Mosey, said the service was particularly effective with live action football and other sports.
"It gives fantastic picture quality, from the blades of grass that are being played on right to the back of the stands," he said.
High-definition pictures are four times better than conventional TV and Mosey stressed that the trial would only be available to a selected group of viewers, but hoped it would be "a of the future".
HDTV will be available to viewers who have HD-enabled television sets, set-top boxes and relevant services via satellite and cable distributors. The first World Cup match and live HDTV programme to be broadcast will be Germany v Costa Rica on 9 June, which will also include match commentary and studio coverage. The service will come via Premiere, Germany's host broadcaster for the tournament.
High-definition images will also be fed into standard digital and analogue transmissions of the game and the Wimbledon Championships, where the BBC is the host broadcaster.
WARTS AND ALL HIGH-DEF WORRIES
While HDTV might soup-up the viewing experience, film stars are worried it will be an unforgiving medium that will highlight blemishes and (God forbid) wrinkles. According to a recent survey by Telewest and the National Association of Screen Makeup Artists and Hairdressers (Nasmah), one in three stars lie about their age - and due to HDTV are now in danger of being exposed. Of those petitioned, 75 per cent were most worried about the signs of ageing showing up, including wrinkles, crow's feet and liver spots. The second biggest concern (15 per cent) was skin blemishes such as spots, boils and blotches. Additional HDTV worries were thinning hair (7 per cent) and scars from surgery or accidents (3 per cent).
According to the association, the most likely to suffer would be ageing stars such as Joan Collins and Michael Douglas. But it also named Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and rock singer Bryan Adams as having less than perfect complexions, which could well prove a handicap on HDTV.
Keira Knightley is also expected to come off badly owing to her occasional outbreaks of pimples. Those who will come out looking good, however, include Johnny Depp (a veritable Dorian Gray at 42), Orlando Bloom, Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson - all of whom have close to immaculate skin complexions.
Sandra Exelby, chair of Nasmah and head of a new make-up school at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, which is developing techniques to shield stars from the more merciless effects of the new technology, says: "High-definition TV is so vivid it is like being there in person. Every flaw visible to the naked eye could be seen on the new [HDTV] services, unless make-up artists retrain in new techniques."
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