Ofcom plans 4 HD channels over DTT network

Ofcom, the broadcasting and telecoms regulator, has revealed plans to provide four high definition TV channels over the existing digital terrestrial television (DTT) network.

The plan will disappoint broadcasters behind the HD for all campaign, which was lobbying Ofcom for radio spectrum to be reserved, to allow the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & Five to broadcast in high definition.

Ofcom’s plans means that HD TV could be delivered over regular TV aerials, eliminating the need to take up spectrum capacity.

Instead Ofcom believes it can enforce a reshuffle of the existing DTT capacity, and a partial shift to using MPEG-4 and/or DVB-S2 video compression technology to provide the new HD TV services.

It is likely that the old analogue TV spectrum will be auctioned off to the phone networks.