Freeview HD by 2009

Finally, High Definition looks set to come to Freeview. UK Regulator Ofcom has announced that we can expect up to four high-definition digital TV channels to be delivered via a TV on Freeview as soon as 2009. One of these four channels will be offered to the BBC, with the other three reportedly up for tender.

The space for these channels will be freed up by getting the existing Freeview services to shift to a new transmission standard called DVB-T2, make of MPEG-4 compression technology, combined with some channel reshuffling. These changes are expected to happen side-by-side with each TV region's digital switchover programme, so it won't be until 2012 that all 4 Freeview HD channels are available across the whole UK

It's expected that viewers will need to get a new Freeview box to get HD, but existing boxes will continue to work for non-HD Freeview channels.

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