Re: BBC THREE wins "best non-terrestrial channel" at Edinburgh TV festival

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:22:59 +0100, Peter Duncanson
<mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:35:00 +0100, sam@xxxxxxxxxxx (Sam Nelson)
wrote:

In article <lt2bb4dspaa13kq7dog5bb79ta6b1h4oe3@xxxxxxx>,
Charlie Pearce <charlie.pearce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
That's funny, I could have sworn you could watch it on Freeview...

So, even the people that run broadcasting organisations these days don't
understand how their technology works? Ludicrous.

Surely the problem is that their use of the word "terrestrial"
is a hangover from when the distinction was between
"terrestrial" and "satellite". With that meaning of the word the
terrestrial services are BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4 and five,
everything else is non-terrestrial. With the arrival of digital
terrestrial services that meaning of the word has been
undermined, but it is not easy to find a single word to replace
it. "Analogue" might have been useful for a few years, but not
now.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, when a word
has lost touch with its origins. The word "filming" is still
sometimes used when no film is involved.

And who would think twice about referring to an aerial on a
spacecraft, even though "aerial" means "in the air" and
spacecraft aerials are in a vacuum?

And of course 'taping' a programme, even when using a PVR or DVD-R.


Marky P.
.