Ofcom is today creating the opportunity for TV viewers to receive up to ten additional high-definition channels through their rooftop aerial.

The new capacity will be made available on digital terrestrial TV (DTT) by using airwaves freed up by the digital switchover, located at 600 MHz, and could triple the number of HD channels currently available on the platform.

Ofcom will award the licence to run the new ‘multiplexes’ – the infrastructure needed to broadcast the channels – to transmission company Arqiva, the sole applicant for the licence.

The BBC has already expressed interest in launching new HD services. These and other channels could go live in some parts of the country by early 2014.

The move from analogue to digital TV, successfully completed at the end of 2012, cleared two frequency bands for new uses. Following consultation, Ofcom decided that one of these bands should made available for additional DTT capacity on an interim basis, as originally proposed. The other was recently auctioned for 4G mobile services.


from http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2013/07/16...errestrial-tv/