Ofcom consults about Freeview HD two-multiplex upgrade plan in the 600MHz band
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV As we covered back on 25th November 2012 Ten more HD channels on two new Freeview HD multiplexes on air from 2014-18 - Freeview news - there is plan to provide until the end of 2018 two more Freeview HD multiplexes.
The following sites will be upgraded to have two new DVB-T2/MPEG4 high definition services.
The sites that will get the services will be:
10 site plan (44.1% coverage): Crystal Palace, Winter Hill, Sutton Coldfield, Craigkelly, Black Hill, Divis, Pontop Pike, Rowridge, Wenvoe and Bilsdale.
20 site plan (61.8% coverage): above plus Waltham, Hannington, Belmont, Oxford, Tacolneston, Ridge Hill, Emley Moor, Mendip, Sandy Heath and Durris.
30 site plan (65.7% coverage): above plus Angus, Bluebell Hill, Sheffield, Moel-y-Parc, Caldbeck, Caradon Hill, Beacon Hill, Darvel, Fenton and Fenham.
The allocations of frequcneis are:
- Crystal Palace C33, C35 In group
- Winter Hill C31, C37 Out of group
- Sutton Coldfield C33, C35 One just outside, One in group
- Craigkelly C33, C34 In group
- Black Hill C32, C35 One just outside, One in group
- Divis C33, C34 In group
- Pontop Pike C33, C34 Out of group
- Rowridge HP C31, C37 In group
- Wenvoe C31, C37 One just outside, One in group
- Bilsdale C31, C37 In group
- Waltham C31, C37 Outside with others
- Hannington C32, C34 Just outside
- Belmont C33, C35 In group
- Oxford C31, C37 Out of group
- Tacolneston C31, C37 Out of group
- Ridge Hill C32, C34 In group
- Emley Moor C32, C34 Just outside
- Mendip C33, C35 Out of group
- Sandy Heath C32, C34 In group
- Durris C32, C35 In group
- Angus C31, C37 Out of group
- Bluebell Hill C32, C34 Just outside
- Sheffield C31, C37 In group
- Moel-y-Parc C32, C34 Just outside
- Caldbeck C32, C35 In group
- Caradon Hill C31, C37 In group
- Beacon Hill C33, C34 Outside with others
- Darvel C31, C37 In group
- Fenton C32, C34 In group
- Fenham C31, C37 In group
See also Ofcom - Award of the 600 MHz spectrum band - Including request to stakeholders to notify intention to apply
Help with High Definition?
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In this section
Saturday, 9 February 2013
K
KMJ,Derby1:27 PM
Briantist: I suspect that the German model of commercial broadcasters having HD subscription channels and SD free to air will be around for a long time. As Freeview is the most popular platform in this country it might be considered that it is economically viable to carry HD on a small number of terrestrial transmitters, especially if all services are DVB-T2, so in that event the SD version would be discontinued. It is significant that there is currently no interest in the available slot on PSB3. Whether that would be different if all receivers were DVB-T2 compatible, or the broadcasters would still opt for lower costs from fewer transmitters remains to be seen. Another point is whether HD would have also been subscription on terrestrial transmitters if the receivers had been equipped with card slots!
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Sunday, 10 February 2013
KMJ,Derby: "It is significant that there is currently no interest in the available slot on PSB3. "
BT Sports HD 1 will be there very soon indeed!
"Another point is whether HD would have also been subscription on terrestrial transmitters if the receivers had been equipped with card slots!"
The whole POINT of Freeview is to ensure that there this doesn't happen.
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K
KMJ,Derby11:06 AM
Briantist: Didn't realise that BT would occupy the slot. Is this free to air, or a subscription channel for BT vision subscribers?
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KMJ,Derby: It's a guess, but the slot is now available for services that are not free-to-air.
It's a guess, but if BT are paying "£246m a season" [1] for their football, they probably will be happy to fork out the money to get it on all the UK transmitters in HD.
The ONE THING you can be sure of is that BT won't be wanting to do that Sky-exclusive HD deal...
[1] Premier League strikes gold with BT talking telephone numbers | Dan Sabbagh | Media | The Guardian
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I
Iain Davies5:08 PM
Let's get rid of all the shopping channel tosh and have even more HD channels
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Monday, 11 February 2013
I
Iain Davies7:07 PM
All the main channels should be HD, BBC1, BBC2 , Itv 1,2,3,4, Ch4, Ch5, More4, Film4, 5 star, there is enough space on the 6 MUXs we have on Freeview to give it us!!!
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K
KMJ,Derby7:18 PM
Dave: This is only a guess, but I suspect that Channel 5HD will not transmit on a nationally available Freeview multiplex until such time as it can withdraw the SD service, ie when all services are DVB-T2. In the meantime they might appear on the temporary HD mux (if and when this launches) to serve the most people for the least cost.
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K
KMJ,Derby7:36 PM
Iain Davies: There is currently no spare capacity for HD transmission on Freeview as this requires muxes to be DVB-T2. The proposed temporary muxes might accommodate some or all of the additional commercial channels mentioned, however there could still be a shortage of capacity in the event of these muxes being closed, and the existing SDN, ArqA and ArqB becoming DVB-T2.
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Tuesday, 12 February 2013
M
Mike Dimmick1:14 PM
Dave, KMJ: Channel 5 withdrew due to "financial constraints". It is widely believed that those financial constraints include some incentive from Sky for the channel to remain exclusive to pay services. That may be as simple as Sky paying the carriage costs on satellite, since the satellite transponder is shared with Sky Sports News HD and ESPN America HD. It may be that Channel 5 thought they could renegotiate this contract or break it early, but found that the compensation to Sky was too high to be covered by the expected ad revenue from Freeview. Which, to be honest, is unlikely to be substantially greater than the current revenue, as many viewers will simply switch from watching C5 in SD to watching it in HD.
On top of that, Channel 5 SD services have regional advertising - there are five versions of Channel 5 SD on satellite for this reason.
If Channel 5 wanted the HD service to go free-to-air on satellite, they would first have to lease a transponder, or space on a transponder, that uses the UK spot beam (although the current transponder is on the Astra 1N satellite, it uses the pan-European beam). Channel 4 and the BBC have spare capacity on the transponders they use for their HD services at present.
That's not a pre-requisite for going on Freeview, of course: as others have said, the UKTV stable are on Freeview without subscription, but require a subscription on other platforms.
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