The end of 2006 marks the end of another exciting year for Digital Terrestrial Television in the UK. Not only have we seen changes to the channels and services themselves, but also witnessed the creation of a definite switchover timetable. What once may have seemed like a flight of fantasy will soon become a reality: the first major area to switchover will see analogue signals turned off in just ten months; the first regions to switch only have to wait until 2008. The switch will (no doubt) be plagued with problems, but is unlikely to be disastrous. Over 70% of households now have access to digital, and this figure grows with every set-top box bought; the Government has announced financial aid will be in place to ensure no-one gets left behind.
A major contributor to the success of digital take-up is the continuing popularity of Freeview. This year saw the platform go from strength to strength (albeit at the expense of other factors) in terms of its channel line-up and appeal. Let’s look back at Freeview’s 2006:
Freeview
Say hello, wave goodbye
The year began with a pretty bizarre tale: someone’s Freeview box managed not only to send a transmission signal, but also one on the exact-same frequency as the international distress signal! Coastguard helicopters were dispatched to trace the SOS call, only to find it had come from some poor Freeviewer’s front room… Despite being called a “one-off incident”, the same thing happened the next month in February!
Following the closure of the ITV News Channel in December 2005, ITV were able to launch the CITV Channel in March. The runaway success of the BBC’s children’s channels (CBeebies is one of the most-watched digital television channels) and ITV’s reluctance to show children’s programming on the struggling ITV1 led them to launching their own rival channel…
Advertising revenues have been falling almost continually on ITV1 since the launch of multi-channel television. To combat the loss of viewers on their flagship channel, ITV launched as many sister channels as possible: at least if people weren’t watching ITV1, they could still be watching ITV2. This tactic appeared to be working: it even prolonged the life of ITV’s Men & Motors channel (which had been expected to close with the launch of ITV4). Unfortunately, ITV’s coffers were still running low. After a hugely successful trial, they decided that a 24-hour quiz channel - ITV Play - was the way to claw back some cash. It replaced Men & Motors in April…
Rumours that a new channel might be using the space overnight that UKTV History has no use for were proved correct when trashy late-night television channel Smile TV appeared on April 26…
The new series of Big Brother in May saw an end to the broadcast of More4+1 on Freeview, in favour of a live stream from the house. This service was ended before the series finished, however: it was taken off-air in July to make way for the launch of Film4, which moved to Freeview on the 23rd. Channel 4 had announced the movie channel would become a free service in line with their ambition to be seen in as many homes as possible: they believe future revenues can be generated from on-demand content…
Also in July, the launch of Virgin Radio
The massacre of the existing Top Up TV line-up (more in a moment) was a result of Five taking back some of their channel slots from the pay-TV company. Five was lagging behind all the other terrestrial broadcasters, who each had at least 5 channels on Freeview (in comparison to Five’s 1), and needed to beef up its multi-channel presence. On October 15th and 16th, Five Life and Five US were launched…
BBC Parliament had only been broadcasting in quarter-screen 4:3 before November, when it became available in glorious widescreen, although at the expense of picture quality on it and the BBC’s interactive services…
Channel 4 started the Freeview quiz channel phenomenon with Quiz Call - but fortunately they saw sense and replaced it with Film4+1 this November. Cynics would tell you that Channel 4 were eager to get rid of Quiz Call because they feared upcoming legislation would cripple their channel’s ability to make tonnes of money, but whatever their motives it’s actions like this that have helped Freeview to become such an attractive proposition. Even FTN, who are notorious for showing rubbish shows and quiz programmes, are cutting the crap and launching a new half-decent schedule for 2007…
Higher up in the channel numbers, Teletext Games appeared and will launch fully next year, while December has seen the launch of 2 new radio stations, Heart (with regional variations, to boot) and the Radio Music Shop. The text service NHS Direct has also appeared on Sky Text page 800…
Subscription
The revolution will be televised (and available on-demand)
The decision by Five to take back capacity from Top Up TV could well have sounded the death-knell for the subscription television operator. Instead, they have capitalised on the fact that the unattractive overnight capacity on Freeview could be used to their advantage. By broadcasting content overnight to be recorded on to their new Anytime set-top boxes, Top Up TV have not only survived the change, but deserve to prosper from it. The channel line-up they currently show “live” is - make no mistake - poor: but their new service, especially when combined with Setanta Sports next year, is an exciting addition to DTT.
This year, DTT said goodbye to the live versions of Bloomberg, Boomerang, Toonami, Red Hot and UKTV Food: the hours of the remaining channels was severely reduced. Next year will most likely see further reductions to allow a 24-hour Setanta Sports channel to launch, bringing Premiership football to DTT for the first time since the collapse of ONdigital: by then the lure of Top Up TV Anytime should be attractive enough to see the company succeed.
The number of DTT-plus-broadband services looks only to increase over the coming years. BT fired the opening salvo with the launch of BT Vision: the content looks good, although as with all new developments, concerns over the technology still remain.
2007 and beyond
Switchover begins
2007 looks set to be another exciting year. As people grow increasingly familiar with Freeview (and new digital technologies in general) the opportunities for combining DTT with new services (such as BT Vision or Anytime PVRs) looks set to grow. Switchover will force DTT on to some households, but provided there remains a commitment to keeping the platform alive with quality services - a commitment that will be driven and policed by public demand - the UK looks fairly well set to embrace the digital switchover.
