Ofcom: no comeback for TV on analogue spectrum
Headed for HD showdown with BBC
Britain's communications watchdog has warned broadcasters they have no God-given right to reoccupy the analogue TV spectrum that they began vacating this week.
Delivering the Ofcom annual lecture on Tuesday evening, the regulator's chief executive Ed Richards said he was not persuaded that TV should be allowed to use the "digital dividend" for high-definition programming. Instead, he spoke of the "golden opportunity" of using more efficient MPEG4 compression and the DVBT2 broadcast standard to squeeze HD channels into the existing Freeview band.
Ofcom is consulting on that plan at the moment. Richards said it could deliver HD shows to Freeview households as soon as the end of 2009, compared to no sooner than 2012 if the regulator waits for the completion of the analogue TV switch-off.
Richards' views could lead to a clash with the BBC, which favours delivering HD over the internet. The Beeb's technology chief Ashley Highfield told BBC news on Tuesday: "With spectrum capacity severely limited on Freeview at least until 2012, we believe quite strongly that internet protocol is a great route to getting HD out to wider audience."
Ofcom has already raised doubts about such plans, questioning their value to the public.
Under the regulator's preferred method, consumers would need new kit to take advantage of HD channels, although the current generation of set-top boxes would continue to work for standard broadcasts. Ofcom is consulting with the understanding that terrestrial HD would be free-to-air.
Sky looks set to be the first to market with MPEG4 broadcasts, via its Picnic venture. It wants to use the extra capacity to broadcast more standard-definition pay-TV channels, however.
Ofcom is also consulting on freeing up the 900MHz band currently occupied by Vodafone and O2. In a speech that mainly focused on consumer protection, Richards did hint that there was scope for a more market-led approach to spectrum allocation.
It suggests future carve-ups will be more technologically neutral than the 3G auction, for example. ®
COMMENTS
SHambles.
This is the normal BBC and OFCOM shambles. The BBC has strongly encouraged people to Freeview and in the end their settop boxes and freeview TV's will be out of date.
I still do not have Freeview, I am not interested in the extra channels and do not want my kids watching more TV as I would prefer them to play musical instruements, Draw, Paint etc. Where we live I would have to buy a new aerial £150 which could also be a waste of money.
TV Licence Fee
"Just to clarify, if you have any equipment capable of receiving a broadcast signal, whether you use that capability or not, you must pay your TV license fee."
NOT TRUE. I wrote to my MP and the BBC about this some time ago and if you JUST use your TV for video's,DVD's you DO NOT have to pay. I have this in writing
upsetting the bandwagon
I think this is more about trying to keep the current broadband climate how it is because there is the situation of high BT central costs for isps and something like IPTV is what could cause the demand needed for BT to start upgrading the local loop which creates a regulation problem for ofcom.
TV Licence ...
For many years I just had a 12" monochrome TV and bought a colour Video Cassette Player (no tuner) and watched bought/rented videos via an ADC card on my computer CRT ... in those pre-dvd days it worked a treat and I did not have to buy a colour TV licence .... I did have to SIGN my TV licence renewal form each year to legally declare I did not have any equipment capable of receiving colour TV signals though 8-)
Years later I had an argument with staff in my local Tesco who would not sell me a cheap DVD player without me giving my name and address for the TV licencing people .. my view was that they did not need my personal details for an electronic item which did not have a TV receiver in it ... they were jobsworth and I gave in 8-( (well I had a colour TV licence anyway but it was the principle of my privacy!).
Re: TV Licence continued
"Just to clarify, if you have any equipment capable of receiving a broadcast signal, whether you use that capability or not, you must pay your TV license fee."
So if the BBC start "broadcasting" over IP, everyone with an internet connection will have to have a TV licence? I look forward to the test case.
