Campaign Begins To Get HD On Freeview
An HD for All campaign has been launched made up of a coalition of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sony, with the aim of getting high definition television made available on Freeview.
At the moment there is not enough bandwidth available on the Freeview platform to support high definition channels.
Ofcom has argued that HDTV channels could be provided by public service broadcasters on existing spectrum, although the public service broadcasters say that this would only be possible by getting rid of existing services.
Once the move to digital has been completed in 2012, Ofcom intends to auction off publicly owned spectrum that will be released as a result of the digital switch-over.
A report in the Guardian quotes campaigners as saying: “There is no obvious way in which the UK public service broadcasters providing free-to-air television channels could recoup the costs associated with an auction.
“They are thus at a disadvantage in competing with mobile operators and others, when those commercial operators can afford to pay a premium for spectrum in the knowledge that they can recoup the costs by providing a premium service to their customers.”
In November, The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five completed a trial which saw HDTV broadcast over Freeview (see Freeview HDTV Trial A Success).
Last week, Sky revealed that its high-definition service had almost doubled in the second quarter of 2006 and is now in 184,000 homes (see Customer Growth For Sky But Profits Down).
HDforAll: www.hdforall.org.uk