| Digital Terrestrial TV & Radio in the U.K. |
| About Freeview
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Freeview is an operator of free digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, using the DVB-T standard. The Freeview brand name, owned by DTV Services, is used to promote free digital terrestrial television services as a whole and those services operated by companies who rent capacity from Freeview Consortium shareholders.
Freeview was launched on 30 October 2002 at 6 am when it took over the digital terrestrial television (DTT) licence to broadcast on three multiplexes from the defunct ITV Digital (originally called ONdigital).
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The founding members of DTV Services were the BBC, Crown Castle UK (now known as National Grid Wireless) and British Sky Broadcasting. On 11 October 2005, they were joined by ITV plc and Channel 4. The Freeview service broadcasts free-to-air television channels, radio stations and interactive services from the BBC, Sky and other broadcasters.
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| Website: www.freeview.co.uk |
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| Coverage |
| Approximately 27% of households are in a location that can not receive Freeview broadcasts, despite the TV licence being the same for every region. Maximum Freeview coverage of the UK whilst analogue and digital services are running in tandem has now been reached. The British government plans to switch off analogue transmitters region-by-region, starting in 2007, to allow for an increase in both Freeview coverage and transmitter power. The government estimates that the coverage level of the three public service broadcasting multiplexes will reach 98.5% of the population (the same as analogue television) and six-multiplex reception will cover 90% of the population once the digital switchover has been completed in 2012. |
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| Freeview+ |
| Freeview+, as well as Freeview, are consumer brands created in the UK by the DTG Group to "raise consumer awareness and promote sales" of Freeview-capable digital video recorders. Players which meet specified quality and functionality criteria are permitted to carry the Freeview+ logo, and benefit from joint marketing and consumer confidence. Branded players were available from May of 2007, and expected to be "widely available" from the end of 2007. |
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| Freeview HD |
There are currently no high definition channels on Freeview, however as of January 2008 it appears that there are plans to roll out high definition channels on a regional basis, starting in 2009.
According to The Producer, a Sony publication for professionals: "on 21 Nov 2007 Ofcom proposed a reorganisation of the three public service digital multiplexes to allow free-to-air HD services to launch by late 2009. It has backed a scheme to clear multiplex B for this goal (currently used by the BBC to carry CBeebies, BBC Parliament, three interactive video services, ten radio and two data services).
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| The process strips the BBC of a significant amount of spectrum, and gives Ofcom the power to decide who gets what in the subsequent re-allocation. The day before the announcement the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five signed a "non binding memorandum of understanding" to reorganise their DTT spectrum to ensure an HD launch on Freeview within the existing spectrum capacity, in an attempt to control their own destiny. |
| Ofcom is backing a near-doubling of efficiency by two means. These are, first, through coding squeezing more into the same spectrum by using MPEG4 rather than the current MPEG2. Secondly it is backing a new transmission standard DVB-T2, an update from existing DVB-T, this alone promises to deliver a 30 percent increase in capacity to a multiplex. |
Together the two moves increase the capacity of a multiplex by 60 percent. Ofcom expects to award four blocks with three starting in 2009/2010 and a fourth starting 2012.
It is expected that the first three will be BBC HD, ITV HD, and Channel 4 HD. The HD services will also be available on Freesat." Freesat, which parallels the Freeview service on a new dedicated satellite platform began broadcasting on 6 May 2008. Current Freeview set-top boxes and HD-ready digital televisions are not capable of decoding DVB-T2 so viewers will need to purchase an HD receiver when the time comes. |
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| What channels are available through Freeview? |
| Click HERE for Freeview's TV and Radio line-up. |
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| Top Up TV |
Top Up TV is a digital Terrestrial Pay TV service offering content from 23 subscription Channels such as Living, G.O.L.D., Cartoon Network and TCM in addition to the Freeview service.
Programming is received through a Top Up TV+ DTR and costs a monthly fee of £9.99 (without contract). In addition to being able to show programming from the Top Up TV Anytime line up, for an additional fee subscribers can access PictureBox (an NBC Universal premium film service) and premium broadcast channels such as Setanta Sports 1.
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| Website: www.topuptv.com |
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| Freeview in the Channel Islands |
Freeview is currently unavailable in the Channel Islands, the digital transmissions use a different frequency bandwidth which for the Channel Islands would interfere with French broadcasts.
There has been a lot of uncertainty over when and if the switchover will happen in the Channel Islands. It has been announced that islands will be switched after London in 2013.
The digital switchover will be coordinated by Digital UK |
| However the islands will not receive all of the 40 or so channels currently on Freeview in large parts of the UK. The Channel Islands will receive all the public service channels including the BBC channels, ITV channels, Channel 4 channels and five channels. Digital UK expects the Channel Islands will get around 18 or 19 channels at switchover on top of all the BBC digital and Channel 4 radio stations through the TV. Viewers in the Channel Islands will have to rely on digital satellite transmissions until 2013. |
| The Channel Islands are the last place to switch because they are not part of the UK (Crown Dependency), or part of the UK switch over programming. However the islands have said switch over will happen in 2013 and Digital UK will be working with the Channel Islands. |
| The current date set for the digital switch in the Channel Islands is 2013. There will be no transision period in the Channel islands. It will go from being analogue one day to digital the next and this is due to signal interference. |
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| Freeview on the Isle of Man |
| The Isle of Man is to be the first nation in the British Isles to switch over fully from analogue to digital television. Digital terrestrial (FreeView) is only available in certain areas of the north and west of the island who are within the range of UK based transmitters. From 2008, the Glenmaye transmitter on the western side of the island is expected to be digital only, carrying 3 Public Service multiplexes. The other three commercial multiplexes may be receivable from transmitters on the British mainland. |
The Isle of Man is a dependency of the British Crown, it is not part of the United Kingdom or a member of the EU. The local government controls broadcasting on the island.
The island is close to the British mainland, has no local television channels and receives television and radio services from the British mainland. There are also a number of local analogue radio channels on the island. Analogue televison (four channels), are broadcast from the transmitter site at Glenmaye on the western side of the island. Glenmaye will switch to digital in 2008. |
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| Further Information |
| Save Freeview HD Site campaigning for HDTV on Freeview. |
| UK Multiplexes Information on the UK's digital terrestrial multiplexes. |
