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The saga of the UK’s switchover to an all-broadband TV
future moved up a notch with the publication of a government paper Watch this Space: A
new strategic direction for UK media that offers twin-tracks to
an inevitable transition.
A fast-tracked scheme to switch off the digital terrestrial
TV (DTT) network favoured by public service broadcasters (PSBs) including the
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 would be complete by 2034. A decade long extension to
ensure universal access to PSB content is guaranteed is, not surprisingly,
favoured by transmission provider Arqiva whose current contract for DTT
provision expires in 2034.
Financial ratings agency S&P subsequently said of
Arqiva, “A potential 2034 shutdown represents a downside scenario to our
rating. Furthermore, Arqiva continues to face structural headwinds as the
accelerating shift toward IPTV threatens its long-term earnings.”
The PSB argument for 2034
Essentially this boils down to cost. Cash-strapped PSBs
A Future TV Taskforce, which comprises UK PSBs and Everyone
TV (a free TV platform run by the PSBs that supports IPTV (Freely) PTV), terrestrial (Freeview) and satellite (Freesat) delivery welcomed the proposals as recognising the
consumer-led shift towards internet‑delivered television.
Jonathan Thompson, chair of the Future TV Taskforce and CEO
of Everyone TV, said, “As part of a wider move towards a fully inclusive
digital society in the mid-2030s, we support a carefully managed transition in
which no one is left behind.”
They provided figures that the number of UK homes without
broadband was 1.2 million at the end of 2025 and that this would drop to
220,000 by 2034.
Maintaining a nationwide DTT infrastructure to service this
minority is considered by the BBC to be “inappropriate for the corporation and licence fee payers” and
would threaten cuts in content.
Media regulator Ofcom said as such in its review of public
service media last year: “Within the
next few years delivering TV universally on DTT will go from being
a significant benefit to the PSBs, to a substantial obligation
they will need to finance. This would mean more investment being diverted into
distribution, rather than commissioning content that benefits all audiences and
the creative industries.”
Commercial PSBs
make a similar point in the paper,
warning that “any additional
investment in distribution reduces the funds available for investment in UK
content.”
In addition, they say that 97% of households would have
nothing more to pay if DTT was replaced with IPTV today. Since 95% already pay
for broadband and 56% of non-internet users already pay for a landline
telephone and these lines will be replaced by IP-delivered lines in the next
two years.
The case for 2044
Incumbent tech provider Arqiva played on fears that a poorly
managed transition “would be consumer
sensitive, reinforcing the case to consider a more cautious, hybrid approach
rather than a simple ‘runway’ to IPTV.”
It commissioned an
alternative view which projects a higher figure of about 2.9 million households
by 2025 that would use still require a DTT tuner as the primary means of
watching linear on the main TV.
It also claimed
that DTT “offers secure, resilient distribution because Arqiva is held to
service levels that do not apply to IPTV.”
This is
particularly important during national events and emergencies, when IP networks
may be congested or unavailable.
Arqiva proposes
to switch to a hybrid Freeview service from 2034 including an upgrade from DVB-T to DVB-T2
using MPEG-4 AVC. All legacy
DVB-T capacity would be retired from 2035 and replaced by three DVB-T2 multiplexes, one PSB multiplex at about
98.5% coverage and two commercial multiplexes both at about 90% coverage.
Doing so would
reduce DTT transmission charges from about £231 million a year today to about
£139m from 2035 or roughly £123m if the DVB-T2 refresh is funded from
auctioning off some of the DTT spectrum for mobile operation.
The share of these
Arqiva charges falling to the PSBs would drop accordingly from £156m today to
£87m a year (or £78m with auction funding). These figures exclude broadcasters’
own distribution, coding and multiplexing costs, as well as wider implementation
costs.
Yet this modelling
cuts no ice with the PSBs. In the Paper they call even the £78m annual charge
“unmanageably high post 2034.”
Their assessment is
that the cost of maintaining a universal PSB multiplex, particularly for
commercial PSBs, would exceed their ability to operate it economically while
continuing to deliver PSB content to all audiences.
Over a decade the
cost to maintain DTT would run close to £1 billion.
The case for
better DTT
There is a group
who are happy with neither approach. TV manufacturers and operating system providers, represented by techUK-CE-S\&T
describe wants the DTT infrastructure to be beefed up to DVB-T2 using HEVC and
therefore pave the way for UHD channel upgrades.
They point out that
other European markets are
demonstrating “credible” pro-DTT pathways; upgrading DTT to support HD and UHD
(France and Spain) or using DVB-I to integrate broadcast and IP services
(Germany and Italy).
The upgraded
platform would not support more efficient codecs but addressable advertising
would be enabled in more homes, it argues (although by IP connectivity rather
than by DVB-T2 itself(. A refreshed platform would also keep open the prospect
of future 5G broadcast services, subject to viable use cases and device
support.
What’s next?
A switch-off date will now be set, with ministers consulting
on the two potential timelines. An
announcement is due by end of the year.
The government itself has hinted that it favours 2024. Media
minister Ian Murray said: “We are leaning in the green paper to 2034 because
there are massive benefits. The really important thing is no one is left behind
and we will have a very strong strategy from government to ensure that is
the case.”
However, a poll found that nearly half of respondents
would oppose
paying the £180 licence fee if its content were only available
online.
UK to force social media to tweak algorithms in favour of
PSBs
The document also contains proposals to give greater
prominence and discoverability to
UK PSB content on social media platforms.
The regulator said
broadcasters should work “urgently” with YouTube to ensure their content was
easy to find on fair commercial terms, describing this as particularly
important for news and children’s programming.
The government claims the plan would make it easier for people to find trusted news sources
online and could legislate to bring about the change.
The move comes as media consumption continues to shift
online. According to Ofcom, social media is now the primary source of news for
three-quarters of 16-24 year-olds, while more than half of UK adults use social
platforms to access news.
Despite this news on the BBC and ITV are still seen as more
trustworthy than other sources found online and on social media.
Rules of this kind
already apply to TV. The Media Act 2024 requires connected platforms such as
smart TVs and streaming sticks to give prominence to public service on-demand
services, including iPlayer and ITVX.
The UK government has already announced a ban
on under-16s using social media
platforms from next spring.
Separately, the Green Paper suggests widening the number of
key sports events that are mandatory to be made available for free on
traditional TV and online. The current list of events including the soccer
World Cup, the Olympics, the FA Cup, the Grand National, and Wimbledon tennis.
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