Annex A
DIGITAL TELEVISION IN THE UK
Until 1983 television broadcasting in the UK
comprised just the four main analogue channels: BBC One, BBC Two,
ITV1 and Channel 4 (S4C in Wales). The first cable franchises,
licensed in 1984, and the launch of Sky's analogue satellite services
in 1989, brought wider consumer choice to the viewing public for
the first time.
Digital television, with its greater spectrum
efficiency and wider range of services, was launched commercially
in the UK in 1998. The launch of Sky's digital service was quickly
followed by the introduction of a new television platform, digital
terrestrial television or DTT, the development of which had been
enabled by The Broadcasting Act 1996.
The 1996 legislation created a limited digital
terrestrial network alongside the existing analogue one. This
inevitably restricted the coverage available to DTT because frequency
planners had to "squeeze" the new services between existing
analogue broadcasts.
The 1996 Act created a six multiplex structure
for the UK (the current version of which is detailed in Annex
C). The DCMS assigned one multiplex to the BBC and the Independent
Television Commission (the then regulator, which has now been
replaced by Ofcom) made a second available for ITV and Channel
4 to share together with the public Teletext service. The other
four were advertised for competitive tender. As a result of this,
SDN (a consortium owned at the time by S4C, United Business Media
and NTL; and now part of ITV plc) was awarded one multiplex. The
remaining three went to BDB, which went on to become OnDigital,
later renamed ITV Digital.
ITV Digital operated a pay-TV service on DTT
until the business was closed in 2002. The ITC re-advertised the
licences for the three multiplexes ITV Digital controlled, and
awarded them to the BBC (multiplex B) and Crown Castle UK (multiplexes
C and D), who had joined with Sky to form a consortium called
DTV Services Ltd that would market a new free-to-air DTT service.
"Freeview" was launched in October 2002, and precipitated
substantial growth in take-up of digital television.
In the meantime, Sky had rapidly grown its consumer
base, reaching its five million customer target and switching
off its analogue signal in 2001, both ahead of schedule.
The emergence more recently of new digital platforms,
such as Homechoice, which operates over a telephone line; and
the launch of new services from established providers, such as
the "freesat" non-subscription service from Sky; has
brought a huge diversity of digital TV options for viewers. Developments
such as the BBC and ITV's proposed free to air satellite service
as well as BT's proposed DTT/broadband service will further add
to this. The current array of digital TV options is summarised
in Annex D.
63% of UK households now receive digital television,[18]
and take-up continues to expand. In the 12 months to the end of
June 2005 the number of digital homes increased by around 18%,
or roughly two million households, to 15.7 million homes. The
UK has the highest levels of digital take-up in Europe.
Figure 1: Historical Growth of Digital
Television in the UK[19]
18 Source: Ofcom's quarterly "Digital Television
Update", Q2 2005. Back
19
Source: Ofcom. Back
| 
