Freeview HD is on schedule Ofcom have announced today with 50% of the UK population able to receive High Definition broadcasts through their existing TV aerials as promised in time for the 2010 World Cup.
Freeview HD is now available to 50% of the UK population, including homes in Manchester, London, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham and the majority of Wales. You can check to see if Freeview HD is available in your area with the Freeview HD Post Code Tool
Households in the coverage areas will be able to watch the World Cup tournament in up to five times more detail than standard definition television via ITV1 HD and the BBC HD channel.
Currently there are four HD channels available on Freeview. These include BBC HD, ITV HD, Channel 4 HD and S4C Clirlun. The BBC will also be launching BBC 1 HD later this year
South Africa 2010 will be the first time that a World Cup has been available in HD to a mass market in the UK, marking the biggest step change since the tournament was first broadcast in colour for the 1970 Mexico World Cup.
Following the football tournament, Freeview HD will continue to roll out in-line with the digital switchover towards the target of 98.5% availability in Britain by the end of 2012.
As recently as two years ago some industry experts said it was impossible to ever get HD on digital terrestrial TV (Freeview), without using more radio airwaves – technically known as spectrum.
This is a finite natural resource, in high demand. And HD is spectrum hungry, demanding roughly four times as much as standard definition. This meant there was not enough bandwidth available to broadcast HD on digital terrestrial TV (DTT).
Against all the odds, Ofcom’s Spectrum Policy Group worked on a complex plan to create the extra room needed for HD on DTT.
Greg Bensberg, who led the team, said:
“Two years ago, the promise of HD on Freeview hung in the balance. HD demanded large amounts of additional spectrum – but there was none to be had.
“Fortunately we identified a way of achieving what many thought was impossible – by reorganising existing TV services and introducing two new technologies – MPEG-4 and DVB-T2. This created enough capacity for five HD channels on Freeview.”
