Monday, 12 June, 2006
HDTV coming to UK terrestrial TV soon
The major TV broadcasters, including the BBC, will soon be testing if high definition services can be sent to aerials.
The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five said in a joint statement on Thursday that a test group of 450 viewers are collecting their HD set-top boxes this week for a technical trial, expected to last for six months.
It will help to discover whether there could be HD broadcasts on Freeview in the future,” the broadcasters said.
The transition to the much-improved picture quality of HDTV is being seen as a landmark move, similar to the shift from black and white television to colour.
Currently, there isn’t enough space to carry HDTV signals on Freeview to the majority of households. The broadcasters are hoping to use the spectrum that will become available when the analogue signal is turned off in 2012.
“We calculate that there could be room for up to six high-definition channels in the freed-up spectrum,” a BBC spokeswoman said.
Ofcom, the media regulator, is counducting a review to decide how to distribute the analogue spectrum.
Comments
There are no comments for this entry yet.