BBC and ITV Freesat

There are more questions than answers about the new joint BBC-ITV Freesat project.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 1st January 2006 at 22:07}


There are more questions than answers about the new joint BBC-ITV Freesat project.



What we do know is that it will use the existing free-to-air BBC transmissions from the Astra 2 satellites. ITV will stop using Sky's encryption services and broadcast free-to-air from the same satellites.

There is no point in doubling the cost of transmission of the 45 regional and national BBC and ITV-1 services by replicating them on another satellite system.

BBC/ITV Freesat service will have a separate electronic programme guide (EPG), which will allow any channel already broadcasting free-to-air on digital satellite to join. If BBC/ITV Freesat will have the same channel numbers as Sky Freesat or Freeview, and who can instigate future changes is not yet clear.

No decision has been taken to mandate the use of OpenTV operating software as Sky use, the inclusion of a modem and subscription card slots. Without all three of these, BBC/ITV Freesat boxes could not be upgraded to Sky's subscription services.

All of the satellite's existing interactive services are written using the OpenTV software. Without this relatively expensive and propriety software in each set-top box, providers of interactive television channels will have to duplicate their code to work on both Sky and BBC/ITV channels.

As new software wouldnt need to pass Skys approval system, this could reduce the development time.

BBC/ITV Freesat boxes wouldnt need to keep Skys constraints, so could have mobile-phone SMS technology, Ethernet ports to connect to broadband, web-browsers and file-sharing of recorded programmes.