Want BBC Three, FOUR, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News in HD? You can, in 2014
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV It appears that the BBC Three HD and CBBC HD will be added to the national Freeview HD multiplex (the one broadcast to over 98% of UK homes). Quite why we have to wait until next year, I'm not so sure.
In addition, the two new Freeview HD services that are in the "600MHz band" (between 550-606MHz) will reach 70% of the UK population will provide BBC FOUR (and CBeebies daytime) plus BBC News HD.
BBC News in HD from 2014.
See previous articles at Ofcom consults about Freeview HD two-multiplex upgrade plan in the 600MHz band and Ten more HD channels on two new Freeview HD multiplexes on air from 2014-18 - Freeview.
The three new streams (as they are called) will also find space on the Astra satellites for Sky and Freesat homes, plus they will be provided to the cable company for distribution that way.
In addition, "The BBC is also working on a proposal to launch regional variants of BBC One HD and BBC2 HD for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland." according to BBC to launch five new HD channels - News - Broadcast.
Channel 4 also offered to provide "simulcast at least one, and potentially two, television services on the [new Freeview HD] multiplex" (see Interim use of 600 MHz for DTT)
Ofcom's starement today, Award of the 600 MHz spectrum band Statement Publication date: 16 July 2013 says:
"This statement sets out our decision to proceed with an award of the 600 MHz spectrum band (550 to 606 MHz) to Arqiva on an interim basis. We will do so by granting a single licence for the establishment of temporary Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) multiplexes using DVB-T2/MPEG4 technology. The licence will run until 2026, but with a minimum duration to 31 December 2018, subject to revocation on 24 months' notice
One point of substantive challenge was that the proposed interim DTT licence might limit our ability to initiate any clearance of the 700MHz band - for mobile broadband -if such a clearance was to begin before the end of the proposed minimum licence term to the end of 2018. We have considered this argument carefully and decided, for the reasons set out in this statement, that the most proportionate way to address this issue is to add a clause in the licence that will allow us to vary or substitute the frequencies awarded in the 600 MHz band, as necessary, ahead of the end of 2018 in order to facilitate any transition of DTT from the 700 MHz spectrum."
| Whenever i watch moving sport especially football I experience much poorer pictu | 1 |
10:03 AM
Peterborough
David: You didn't make a mistake - you bought the right thing from what was available at the time.
By the sound of it, your TV (odds on its a Panasonic) was bought about 4 years ago, which is before t2 recivers were even built into TV's, and the first year they were, the TV's were generally high level models only. You've enjoyed watching HD on Freesat since you bought it, some time before it was ever available on terrestial TV.
It seems, as I suggested, that the BBC will put the new channels on Freesat anyway, but even if they were not, a modern HD PVR (fully smart, etc) is a pretty reasonable price, and is incrediably useful anyway.
Mike Dimmick: I never mentioned Sky once, but anyway...
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MikeB's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
10:29 AM
I am hopeing that the BBC will put the HD channels on 101 and 102 on Sky. Sky has this neet system for using lower channel numbers for HD if you have a HD box.
I wonder why they are announcing this now. It might be just to try and improve thier image after all the bad publicity they have had.
I still cannot figure out how they can pay for this. BBC 1 is already 65% repeats shurely they are not going to increase that. I don't think the public will put up with an increase in licence fee after all the revalations of financial mismanagement. They have already announced they are going to dumb down the sports coverage. As we can see the news coverage has certainly deteriated.
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8:31 PM
Brighton
trevorjharris: do you ever saying anything positive about the BBC, or negative about Sky? Just had a look at your comments over the past years and all you ever do is whinge about the BBC and the license fee, whilst the sun seems to shine out of Sky's posterior according to you?
You seem to have Sky and a gigantic 3D television and watch lots of sport - I recall you predicted a major rollout of 3D by 2016 - which now seems to have died in favour of 4K?
How much do you pay Sky every month for your services? Compared to the license fee how much do you pay Sky? Are you employed by Sky directly or indirectly?
This is the ukfree.tv site - who really cares what Sky viewers who can't seem to be able to swap channels to watch HD streams, or are upset about red button service think?
To me, as a FTA viewer, these announcements are fantastic.
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peter's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
9:36 PM
time for ITV234hd channel 4 and 5 and others to follow suit on going hd on freesat and freeview and ofcom to say to all broadcasters by 2016 every channel has to be in 1080p with 4k only around the corner and one 4k channel from BBC ITV AND CHANNEL 4 AND 5 BY 2018 and sky needs to curtailed until 2018 on doing any more hd channels and only to have 2 4k channels and virgin also
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10:25 PM
conor: As long as ITV2/3/4 are on Freesat in SD, which they need to be for the forseeable future in order to satisfy viewers with SD boxes, the HD channels on satellite will be subscription services. After all, they would not gain any more viewers, just lose subscription revenue if the HD services became free-to-air. This is also the situation in Germany, where the commercial channels are available free-to-air in SD, but the HD services are encrypted. As in the UK the public service channels are available to all in both SD and HD. Sky and Virgin will offer whatever services they feel will be attractive to customers whilst also being profitable in the long term.
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10:25 PM
trevorjharris: It isn't true that 65% of BBC1 programmes are repeats - its about half that Does the BBC show too many repeats? | Television & radio | guardian.co.uk - the average over the whole of BBC TV is 65%, and of course this is often Daytime programming, plus channels such as CBBC/Cbeebies.
The BBC certainly isn't perfect, but for £145 a year, you get two full time channels, the excellent BBC4, and the increasingly good BBC3, the godsend that is CBBC/Cebeebies, a huge range of radio: local, national and international, plus an excellent website. And Iplayer.
Remember that it was the BBC which saved digital TV, its the BBC which supports the Proms, BBC radio produces a huge amount of drama and comedy which has launched a massive amount of talent (who occassionally make stuff for Sky...), its the BBC which produces a large amount of homegrown programming (vastly larger than Sky) and its the BBC which makes original childrens programming, unlike pretty much everyone else.
If you look at Sky 1, it would be interesting to compare the percentage of repeats to BBC1. Looking at the daytime schedule, both fill the fallow periods with repeats.
Sky has far larger revenues than the BBC, yet the bulk of its output is sourced from the US. There are increasing amounts of home produced stuff, but its still a very small amount when you look at the number of hours filled.
Overall, the BBC should be congratulated for increasing the amount of HD programming, and I suspect that many will be watching them on Sky.
(PE12QN)
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11:17 PM
MikeB: Hear,hear!! - in total agreement with all you have said.
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1:59 PM
Clevedon
TrevorJHarris: I don't know who your BBC local is, but the BBC West local news is very good and non-repetetive. The sooner it is available on HD and I don't have to keep switching channels to SD to watch it, the better...
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J's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
If they put cBBC/BBC3 and BBC News on BBC-B, will there be room for the BBC HD red button feed. (Channel 303)
Will it move to COM7 or COM8, or will it end on Freeview?
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
From BBC - FAQs - BBC Launch five new HD Channels
The BBC announced on Tuesday 16 July, that it will launch five new subscription-free BBC HD channels. The new channels are as follows:
BBC News HD
BBC Three HD
BBC Four HD
CBeebies HD
CBBC HD
These will launch by early 2014 and will be offered to all digital television platforms that carry HD channels.
The new channels will broadcast the same programmes as their standard definition equivalents in HD, giving viewers access to a further 250 hours of HD programmes per week than is currently available from the BBC. The majority of HD programmes from these channels will also be available to watch on demand via BBC iPlayer.
In addition, within the next six months, the BBC will present to the BBC Trust a proposal covering the technical options and timetable to launch English Regional variants of BBC One HD and variants of BBC Two HD for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The five new HD channels will be broadcast on satellite, covering approximately 99% of UK homes from launch. On digital terrestrial television (Freeview HD and YouView), BBC Three HD and CBBC HD will use capacity on the BBC's existing HD multiplex, which has 98.5% coverage of UK homes. BBC News HD, BBC Four HD and CBeebies HD will use new HD capacity, which will cover part of the UK and grow in coverage over time. Further information on this new digital terrestrial television capacity can be found in the press releases issued from Ofcom and Arqiva. The five new HD channels will also be offered to TV platform operators that run their own networks, such as cable TV and IPTV operators.
Further information can be found on the BBC Media Centre website.
BBC - Media Centre - BBC to launch five new subscription-free HD channels
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