Digital television in the United Kingdom

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There are four major forms of

HDTV via terrestrial digital television.[1]
Satellite is the only source of HDTV broadcast available for the remaining 23%.

Major forms of broadcast DTV

Terrestrial

Main article: Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom

The initial attempt at launching a digital terrestrial broadcasting service,

ONdigital (later called ITV Digital), was unsuccessful and the company went into liquidation. Some observers have argued that this failure stemmed from the Government's eagerness in having sold off too much TV spectrum to launch Channel 5 (the last UK terrestrial analogue channel), and ONdigital's short-sightedness in over-extending its use of available bandwidth: using poor signal encoding to maintain compatibility with early set-top boxes
, optimising their broadcasts for capacity rather than reliability, and cramming too many channels into the available bandwidth.

ITV Digital was replaced in late 2002 by

standard definition—576i in the UK—many using an anamorphic widescreen
format.

31 March 2004 saw the return of a limited pay-television offering to the digital terrestrial platform with the launch of

hard disk, so that it may be watched at any time. Channels that joined the service include MTV, Nickelodeon and Hallmark Channel
.

2005 saw the first areas of the United Kingdom losing their analogue signal in a pilot test. The residents of Ferryside and Llansteffan in

National Assembly for Wales
. Digital transmissions for this pilot commenced in December 2004, at which time a message was added to the analogue picture advising viewers that the analogue services would end in February 2005. The pilot paved the way for full switch-over to digital television signals throughout the United Kingdom by the Government's deadline of 2012.

The year 2005 also saw the announcement by

Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell, on 15 September 2005. [1]
.

See Digital switchover in the United Kingdom.

Freeview HD

Freeview HD launched in December 2009, from the Crystal Palace and Winter Hill transmitters, to coincide with digital switchover at the latter. Receivers did not, however, appear in the shops until February 2010.

ITV HD, BBC One HD and Channel 4 HD are the currently available terrestrial HDTV channels. The broadcast mode is DVB-T2
, using MPEG4 encoding.

The

free to air
. The trial homes received an HD-capable set-top box; the services could also be received and played back by a PC equipped with a DVB-T card that is within range (as the broadcast is not encrypted) using a software H.264 decoder.

Cable

Main article: Cable television in the United Kingdom

Digital Cable in the United Kingdom is available through Virgin Media and several local cable companies.

Trials of the UK's first

TV Drive.[2]

Satellite

On 1 November 2005 ITV turned off encryption on all of its satellite based signals, following the lead from the BBC. These transmissions are on a limited spotbeam which is aimed primarily towards the United Kingdom, via the Astra 2D satellite located at 28.2° east. This theoretically limits reception to the UK, Ireland, Iceland and the northern region of France, allowing ITV to fulfil licensing agreements with content producers. However, many people report successful reception of these signals from across Europe by using larger dishes.

Film4+1
are free-to-air.

In September 2005, the BBC and ITV announced a free-to-air satellite service as a competitor to Freesat from Sky, to be called Freesat.[3] Launched in May 2008, Freesat offers all BBC and ITV digital TV channels, plus other channels, interactive services, and radio channels, all using existing broadcasts from Astra 28.2°E. It is being touted as the satellite equivalent to Freeview, especially for areas unable to receive the Freeview DTT service.[4]

High-definition

Main article: High-definition television in the United Kingdom

The UK now has 3 main ways of accessing high definition television channels.

Free-to-air

The BBC has launched its own high-definition service called BBC HD which is currently available via Digital Satellite. Rather than simulcasting one of the corporation's existing channels, the channel broadcasts for several hours per day and broadcasts a selection of its high-definition programming.

BBC HD is also available on Virgin Media and Freeview.

BBC One HD was launched on 3 November 2010 on Sky, Virgin, Freesat and Freeview.

During 2006, ITV trialled its high-definition service

ITV HD. This trial was a Digital Terrestrial trial which broadcast only from the Crystal Palace transmitting station in London. The channel was transitioned as a full service initially only on Freesat in Spring 2008.[citation needed
]

Free-to-view

Channel 4 launched a high-definition simulcast, Channel 4 HD of its main channel on digital satellite on 10 December 2007. It also took part in the terrestrial trial mentioned above and launched on Freeview on 31 March 2010.

ITV HD, which first aired on 7 June 2008, operated as an occasional service as part of the Freesat network, available on the "red button" with Freesat receivers only. It then relaunched as ITV1 HD on 2 April 2010 as a full service across all platforms.

Subscription

Sky
offers five HD sports channels, along with a HD sports news channel, ten HD movie channels, and several other subscription HD channels, such as Discovery HD.

With

Sci-Fi HD
.

Public consultation on the Trust's provisional conclusions on the proposed BBC HD service ended on 23 October 2007. [5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "reception". Freeview. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  2. ^ "Virgin Media Deals - Broadband, TV & Phone". virginmedia.com.
  3. ^ "BBC and ITV to start Sky TV rival". BBC News. 7 September 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
  4. ^ "Q&A: Freesat". BBC News. 7 September 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
  5. ^ "BBC Trust public consultation on the proposed high definition television (HDTV) channel". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2019.

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