Europe is about to go through an acceleration of High Definition TV programming, typically based on upgrades to DVB-T multiplexes, to newer technologies.
Last week the UK defined its process for absorbing HD into its existing DVB-T Freeview service to offer 4 channels by 2009, while France allocated two entire multiplexes for HD only content.
Naturally if the free to air digital services can cope with offering HD, then every pay TV service has to upgrade sooner rather than later, and in Europe we have already seen this over the past two years, but come 2009, Europe will be saturated in free HD services, and a continent that already absorbs more modern, large, flat TV screens than the affluent US, will add the HD moniker to everything sold too, dramatically accelerating the replacement rate of TVs.
The UK solution came after almost a year of bickering, just as the BBC Trust was being asked by the BBC to allow it to offer HD on satellite, cable and IPTV, across the web as well as sending 4 hours of HD programming overnight to specially licensed DVB-T DVRs, to play out the next day (push VoD). In the end it was this that perhaps forced the hand of local regulator Ofcom, which will now ‘find’ spare capacity rather cleverly, without any new spectrum being offered to broadcasters.
The idea is to vacate one of the 6 existing DVB-T multiplexes and run 4 HD channels across it run by the existing main TV services, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, at just over 8 Mbps for each channel, using MPEG 4 Level 10 AVC (H.264) encoding. Ofcom will upgrade this multiplex to the new DVB-T2 standard, which is also supposed to give a saving of 30% capacity, as well as the savings generated by using a new modulation, moving from 16 QAM to 64 QAM.
The SD channels that are moved from the HD multiplex will be shared out across the other 2 public service multiplexes, which should already have just enough room to accommodate them. Later, at digital switch over, the mode change will give these multiplexes and the 3 commercial multiplexes more capacity once again.
The upshot of all this is that HD arrives two years earlier in the UK than expected, in late 2009, assuming the DVB Project completes its definition of DVB-T2 roughly on time. By HD, Ofcom is only talking about the 720P format.
Immediately all the public service broadcasting companies agreed to the proposals, and it is likely that something similar could happen to the other three commercial multiplexes at some stage in the future. That would mean that by creating new HD channels, with the most popular content on them, then the bulk of the best UK viewing would go free to air in HD, across something like 8 TV channels.
Already Freeview is being watched in 14 million of the 24.5 million UK homes just three years after its launch, and this move will mean that viewers that have bought those 14 million DVB-T set tops, will still be able to watch content from 5 multiplexes. Only one multiplex will have to pay to upgrade to the new DVB-T2 format, and only one head end will need to upgrade to HD encoding. New set tops will be bought by everyone wanting the HD services and these would also have dual tuners/decoders to take in the existing free to air digital channels from the other multiplexes.
The French have gone about the process in a different, more urgent way, with the broadcast regulator, the CSA, giving out two new licenses to commercial broadcasters and will encourage them to begin transmitting far earlier than in the UK, around Spring 2008, and by the end of 2008 offer 8 HD channels. The service will begin initially with 3 channels, TF1 HD, M6 HD and France 2, then also at least one new encrypted pay TV channel, and three more channels by the end of 2008.
Meanwhile Canal + Spain has decided to begin test transmissions in High Definition on Sogecable’s Digital+ platform and will go live with these later in the year.
And in Italy, while Mediaset has not yet brought out HD services on its DVB-T platform, it is in the process of adding more channels now, including a Cinema channel, and will add two pay-TV channels on digital terrestrial during 2008, which means it will have to encrypt at least one DVB-T multiplex, and that would be a good opportunity to take it to HD and H.264 encoding at the same time.