I think for your statement "Freesat is the only platform in the UK today that is capable of delivering HD, free-to-air broadcast slots to each channel as and when that channel is ready to commence an HD service" to happen then they would need more sats up there, but I think that was and has always been the plan (just look at sky who have gone through many sats in their years of service (currently they have three sats but have had 10 previous carrying sky services including analogue))