Future of HD Freeview looks uncertain
Thursday, April 19th, 2007Auction on airwaves leaves free HD future looking doubtful
When the analogue signal is finally put to rest in 2012, it will leave large amounts of broadcasting space in the airwaves free for more content to be delivered to people’s homes.
Freeview customers, currently representing the largest digital TV consumer group are particularly in favour of having a significant portion of this free space to set aside for high-definition DTT channels, after the successful HD Freeview trial run in London last year. Currently, the Government plans to sell the free space, valued at around £10 billion, to be sold to whoever can stump up the most cash.
HDforAll, a pro-Freeview lobby group have petitioned Ofcom to retain some of the broadcasting spectrum for DTT viewers. The home page of the HDforAll website reads thus:
“On 19th December 2006 the media regulator, Ofcom, announced plans to auction publicly owned spectrum to the highest bidder. If the auction takes place as planned the millions of consumers who have purchased, or plan to purchase HD TVs may never be able enjoy high definition TV on the Freeview platform.”
Their argument is that HD will become a privileged service only available to those who are willing to pay for a subscription service, which for reasons of either budget or viewing preferences (or both) some viewers are refusing to do.
An e-petition which totalled to just under 5,000 signatures was made out to Downing Street, and an article in the Sunday Times last month suggested that auctioning off all of the publicly-owned broadcasting space could be a vote-swinger for the next Election.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
What has happened to ITV channels 234 up to 3 weeks ago we were able to receive these programmes without difficulty then they disappeared Post code PE13 4ES
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 am
Hi J,
A quick postcode check at freeview.co.uk/availability reveals that, unfortunately, you live in an area which currenty cannot receive the full line-up of TV channels and radio stations, which may account for your recent loss of channel 234.
However, your sudden loss may be due to ITV changing their line-up, moving the channel to a different number, in which case, a simple scan for new channels on your Freeview box may find the lost channels, or it may be due to the positioning of your aerial.
There should be an option on the on-screen menu for your Freeview box which will allow you to perform a scan - the Freeview box searches the airwaves for any new information such as new channel numbers, and services. For more information on scanning for channels, try here: radioandtelly.co.uk/reception.html#scan
It’s highly likely that this is the reason for the channel suddenly going AWOL, if you were able to get it in the past, unless ITV have shifted it to a broadcast frequency that you cannot currently receive.
It also may be due to the positioning of your aerial; there is plenty of info on this page on how to improve your reception - http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/reception.html#aerial
The big Digital Switchover is due to happen in your area in 2011, after which everything should be fine.
Hope this is of help and you get your missing channels back soon. Let us know how things turn out.