The Cost of HD in the Studio

We had a very enjoyable block party last Tuesday night, participating in National Night Out. And one of my semi-retired neighbors still does some television production work so I took the opportunity to ask why we don't see locally produced content in HD. He said the cost of the necessary studio equipment is very expensive so most smaller stations are still broadcasting in-house content in standard definition. An interesting table of television equipment costs shows 16:9 HD studio cameras costing $200,000 each and a production video switcher at $350,000.

Local stations can (and obviously do) broadcast HD content from sources outside the studio - national programming and commercials for example - but they're just passing that content along as it comes through the feeds. So, I guess we can understand why we see stretched local newscasts and commercials. Surely the on-camera news people are tired of seeing themselves somewhat hefty. I bet they would prefer to just see the SD content in its natural 4:3 format until the station is capable of providing real 16:9 HD. Me, too.