High-Definition Freeview is cleared for landing
Thursday, November 29th, 2007Ofcom OK HD for DTT
High-definition Freeview channels could be appearing on British screens as early as 2009, thanks to an Ofcom ruling, which sees a percentage of the broadcast spectrum set aside for HD Freeview, despite pay-TV leaders Sky and Virgin repeatedly pooh-poohing the idea. Ofcom has consistently argued that broadcasters could launch HD using their existing allocation of spectrum, BBC and ITV along with support from the HDforAll group have lobbied the regulator to set aside more spectrum for Freeview HD.
Ed Richards, head of Ofcom, had this to say: “Our proposals to upgrade Digital Terrestrial Television represent a major opportunity to build on its success with wider, richer and more varied television services, including the potential for HDTV to be made available to millions of people free to air.”
The new proposals will see broadcasters utilising existing radio spectrum on the Freeview platform to launch new HD channels by 2009 – both the BBC and Channel 4 have said that they intend to broadcast channels in HD over DTT eventually. The Beeb has already carried out a successful trial of an HD channel, and C4 should be set to launch their HD service on Sky by the end of the year.
The current aim is to get four HD channels up and running on Freeview by the time of the London Olympics in 2012, so that the British public can watch it on HD, and therefore avoiding a potentially embarrassing situation where viewers from across the world would be able to watch the games at a better quality than those in the host nation would.
Ofcom has stressed that those who do not want to upgrade to HDTV can keep their existing Freeview equipment, amid concerns from viewers who wanted to avoid a costly digital solution would have to fork out again for new gear. Only customers who want HD need to upgrade to receive the new channels.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Virgin Media only like to deal with the usual “big boys” for any channels. Any new MTV and Discovery appear… and they will pounce!