Digital TV in the UK explained

What is Digital TV?

Digital TV offers a far wider choice of TV viewing with lots of extra channels, and uses digital technology to reduce the interference that you may experience on analogue TV (the five channels you get via your standard TV aerial).

Digital TV also offers other benefits, such as a greater selection of widescreen programming, and on-screen electronic programme guide, interactive services, and in some cases, High Definition and Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

By 2012, the UK's TV service is switching to digital, and you need to be ready for the Digital Switchover. Here, we discuss the options for getting digital TV that's ready for the switchover.

Digital TV services available in the UK

What are the Digital TV options?

The options open to you if you want Digital TV in your home, are:

Freeview	Freeview is received through your standard TV aerial. All channels are free to watch, there's no installation or subscription cost, no contract, and no engineer needs to visit. Freeview offers around 40 TV channels and 25 radio stations - the channel line-up is more limited than Sky Digital. To get Freeview, you either need to buy a special Freeview set-top box and connect it to your existing TV set, or consider getting a new TV that has a built-in Freeview receiver. See our Freeview pages for full details and answers to common questions.
Satellite	In the UK, the digital satellite TV leader is Sky Digital. Sky offers the largest range of channels around, with channels including Sky One, GOLD, Comedy Central, lots of Sky Movies channels and an unrivalled range of sport, music and kids channels. To get Sky, you sign up online, and arrange for a Sky engineer to install a satellite dish and hook up a digibox to your existing TV. If you're considering Sky, we recommend you look at Sky+, the digital recorder that will change the way you watch TV... For more details on Sky, see our Sky page, or go to www.sky.com/skycom. Offer: Sky Digital is offering the following package: Over 200 digital TV channels, Broadband Internet access (with a free router) and free UK evening and weekend landline phone calls... all this from just £17.50 a month. An installation fee of between £30 and £60 may apply. Limited time, when ordered online. Freesat: If you'd prefer not to subscribe, a number of free-to-view channels are also available with a suitable dish and digibox. Freesat offers free-to-view channels via a dish. This is a joint venture from the BBC and ITV. More on our Free Satellite TV page.
Cable	If you live in a part of the UK that's covered by cable TV operator Virgin Media, they may be able to provide you with a cable TV package, as well as home phone and high-speed Internet access. They will install a set-top box and an engineer will call to connect it to their fibre-optic cable. More on our Cable TV page. To see if cable is available in your area, go to www.virginmedia.com
BT Vision	BT Vision offers Freeview TV channels, supports live pause of TV shows, and comes with up to 80 hours of recording time. It also can download TV content over a Broadband Internet connection - for content like movies, TV shows, kids programming and sporting events. BT Vision is only available to BT Total Broadband customers (How to Switch provider). More on our BT Vision Basics page. If you already have BT Broadband, get BT Vision at btvision.bt.com, otherwise sign up at bt.com/btbroadband
Top Up TV Anytime	Special box that offers the Freeview channels, plus a small selection of TV content that downloads overnight onto the built-in hard-disk. Box supports 100 hours of content downloaded and refreshed every seven days. Shows supplied from GOLD, Comedy Central, Home (formerly UKTV Style) and Living TV. You need to be in a Freeview coverage area. The special Top Up TV Anytime set-top box costs from £40, and the subscription fee is £10.99 a month. See our Top Up TV Anytime page for details, or go to www.topuptv.com
Tiscali TV	Tiscali TV. Formerly known as Homechoice, this service is available in parts of the UK including London, Birmingham and Liverpool, and offers over 70 TV channels via your phone line. The service also offers 1500 on-demand movies, over 5000 music videos, hundreds of TV series, and a TV rewind service. Offer: Free Tiscali+ Recorder worth £100 - Until 31 Dec 2009 More on our Tiscali TV page, or at www.tiscali.co.uk/tv

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What are the bonuses of digital TV?

More channels - Sky offers the biggest channel line-up, but check your potential provider to see if they have what you're after. Popular digital TV channels include Sky 1, E4, BBC3, Dave, Virgin 1, G.O.L.D (formerly UKTV Gold), Comedy Central, Watch and Alibi. There are channels for comedy, Sci-Fi, kids, movies, music, news and sport.
EPG - An on-screen electronic programme guide, so you can control what you view and record. King of the EPGs is the Sky Planner, showing up to a week's worth of programmes on all of the available TV channels.
Reduced interference - Nice sharp pictures, without ghosting and interference. Freeview is susceptible to electrical interference in some environments, but in most cases digital TV offers better picture quality, and improved reception of Channel Five.
Pay-per-view services - Pick from a selection of movies, special sporting events, or adult programming and pay via your subscription or credit card.
Improved viewing - with services like widescreen, high definition, Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and interactive services.
Digital recorders - . These digital TV set-top boxes typically allow you to record a digital channel while watching a different channel, and are a much better recording experience than good old videotape. You may like to consider Sky+ , a Freeview PVR or if you're with Virgin Media cable, the Virgin V+. These are hard-disk recorders that give you greater control of what you record.

The Digital Switchover

The UK is set to turn off analogue TV services between now and 2012, so it's important to understand your options.

After the switch-over to digital, you'll need to have a special digital set-top box connected to your existing TV, or own a TV with a built-in Freeview receiver (something to bear in mind if you're thinking of buying a new TV soon).

For more on the digital switchover, go to www.switchhelp.co.uk.

What is Interactive TV?

Most providers offer some kind of interactive service. Think Ceefax and Teletext, mixed with the Internet. Information on demand, plus two-way services over your phone line, such as email, online shopping and banking. Sky TV viewers are encouraged to "press the red button" to get interactive, and try the news, offers, games, features, and pay services of their interactive offering, Sky Active. Alternatively, check out BBCi, the Beeb's excellent interactive service.

BBCi Interactive
Interactive TV in action

The science bit

If you're interested in the technical side, Digital TV uses something called multiplexing, to combine and compress multiple TV channels into a single transmission that can be decoded by a suitable digital receiver.

In the UK, digital TV follows the worldwide DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) standard. Digital TV via a TV aerial is more properly known as Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT).