Ofcom confirm radical HD-plan intentions

Ofcom have today announced their intentions to launch High Definition television services via Freeview from as early as next year in some parts of the country. Under the proposals, all multiplexes will switch to 64QAM, allowing them to carry more services. These new slots will be filled by services from multiplex B, which will be vacated and used to broadcast three (rising to four) HD channels (at 16QAM using the DVB-T2 MPEG-4 standards). Broadcasters and the Digital Television Group had come up with their own plans, but these have been dismissed by the regulator as being anti-competitive (despite the fact it will be only awarding licences for HD channels to the public service broadcasters).