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View Full Version : London could get Freeview HD in 2009



thelostone
23-10-2008, 11:51 AM
For any of you guys that live down this neck of the woods it might be of interest to you
London and other key metropolitan areas could begin receiving Freeview HD services in time for the 2010 World Cup, it emerged today.

The BBC has applied to Ofcom for temporary frequency assignments that would enable it to launch the reconfigured version of multiplex B - which will carry high definition services from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 - far earlier in some areas than the current timetable would permit.

Under existing plans, only Granada, Wales, Scotland and the West Country will have access to Freeview HD services by 2010. Viewers in the ITV regions Central, Yorkshire, Anglia and Meridian would be able to get the services in 2011, with London, Tyne Tees and Ulster following in 2012.

The BBC's request, which Ofcom is now consulting on, would see "analogue interleaved spectrum" - that is, those frequencies that lie between those used for analogue TV broadcasts in particular areas - temporarily assigned to the corporation for the purposes of broadcasting the high definition multiplex in advance of the existing region-by-region reconfiguration timetable. If approved, the BBC would be able to launch new multiplex B services in large metro areas in late 2009 and early 2010.