For Broadcast March 12, 2008

This week Ofcom chief exec Ed Richards is talking about the next phase of its Public Service Broadcasting Review and Channel 4's Andy Duncan is setting out his vision for the future. But it seems to me that a crucial public service is ensuring there is a reasonable amount of space on the Freeview DTT platform for HD broadcasting, post-digital switchover.

More than half of UK homes now have Freeview according to new figures, and the fourth quarter of last year saw the best take-up rate ever for Freeview boxes with some 3.8 million devices sold. But an industry group warned Ofcom last week that the regulator's plans to use one of the current DTT multiplexes to create space for three, perhaps four, HD channels would leave DTT looking like a poor step-sister to cable and satellite.

An expert panel of four senior broadcasting technology minds, led by Dr Ian Childs, has been working for the Digital Television Group and believes there is another way to create space for HD channels that would be better for the future health of Freeview. The DTG's plan envisions adopting a single-frequency network (SFN) plan for the whole of the UK, resulting in up to 40 HD channels using 22 frequencies (compared with Ofcom's current plan to use 32 frequencies). The plan would mean Ofcom could still sell off spectrum but the government would have to "forgo for a while some of its revenue expectations", Childs says.

One benefit of SFN being adopted and the spectrum auction being delayed is the spectrum's value would likely rise far above what the government can expect to get for it in the current plan. But one comment from Dermot Nolan, director general of the DTG, summed up the challenge: "Spectrum auctions are the crack cocaine of public regulators."

While it is true that jam tomorrow is not an easy sell, ensuring a more robust Freeview, post 2012, should surely be a major part of any public service broadcasting policy.