More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
It appears that Ofcom is releasing UHF Channels 31 - 37 that were to be sold off in the "digital dividend" and are now retaining them for broadcasting. This brings about the possibility of a major increase in capacity, especially if single frequency networks are used, and could bring up to 35 HD channels to the main 80 Freeview transmitters by 2016.
Story on UK Free TV |
Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
Argos TV HD, yessssss!
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Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
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Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
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Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
The problem with Freesat right now is that it is being undermined by one of its owners (ITV). They set the cause of free-to-air satellite in the UK almost back to square one when they signed an encryption deal with Sky for their HD 2/3/4 channels.
Mind you, Freeview has had problems of its own, as OFCOM has been insisting for years that it was going to flog off the analogue spectrum to the highest bidder, effectively rendering the platform futureless thanks to there being no capacity for the inevitable day when all the channels need to standardise on HD. I wonder whether the dog's breakfast ITV has now made of Freesat is what finally convinced OFCOM that the UK is going to have to stick with terrestrial broadcasts in the long term, rather than moving to the far more sensible solution of standardising on free-to-air satellite. |
Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
One thing that struck me about the original article is that it states that you need a wideband aerial for the new frequencies. I'm not sure what's on my roof, but I figure that if I need to have a new aerial installed, it might as well be a dish. Actually, as I need to buy a new box to receive HD anyway, I'll be moving over to Freesat as soon as I can justify replacing my existing Freeview PVR.
I see little point in investing money in a platform that's inherently limited when I can go freesat for the same money. |
Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
If you didn't have to change your aerial when you started getting Freeview, it's probably not a wideband aerial. Terrestrial transmitters in the UK are organised into UHF channel groups so that they don't interfere with each other. But when Freeview and analogue were running side by side, sometimes it was necessary to put the Freeview muxes on a channel that was outside of the transmitter's normal channel group. Therefore, in order to receive Freeview from that transmitter, it was necessary to switch your aerial for one that was capable of collecting signals from any of the UHF channels, and not just the ones from within the group allocated to your transmitter.
I believe the intention was that, once digital switchover was complete, all transmitters would revert to making all their broadcasts from within group, but under this new HD rollout plan it looks like that's no longer going to be possible. |
Re: More Freeview broadcast capacity 2012 - 2016
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