It has just been announced by the Independent Television Commission that British Digital Broadcasting has won the terrestrial digital television multiplex licences B, C and D.
BDB is a consortium made up of Carlton Communications and Granada Group and will offer 12 basic and 3 premium channels. The BBC has agreed to provide exclusive access to its programming and the consortium promises a competitively priced subscription service. Customers will be able to buy set-top-boxes from high-street stores, which will plug into TV aerial sockets. These boxes will be subsidised in the early stages of the licence. BDB hope to have the infrastructure to support the service in place by 1999.
As reported on yesterday’s BSkyB Leaves The Alliance, BSkyB was required by the ITC to relinquish its third share in BDB on competition grounds. Carlton and Granada now each have a 50% stake in BDB.
More details regarding the ITC’s decision will appear on Newsline shortly.
…S4C Digital Networks, which has applied to run multiplex A, will have to wait until the end of July to discover if it has won the licence.
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