Quote:
Originally Posted by nodrogd
As said before, 4sevenHD & ch4+1HD were launched in colaboration with Freeview with the sole purpose of pushing Freeview HD sales, with DVB-T2 becoming the sole Freeview transmission standard from 2018. There were rumours at the time they launched that the channels could dissapear again at that time, when the next block of Freeview spectrum is earmarked for selling off to launch 5G services.
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Yup, I was told by a contact who works for Channel 4 that these channels were to use up capacity that would otherwise be wasted and for the reasons that you gave too.
As well as trying to promote Freeview, they also want to drive up sales of Freeview HD boxes. This is because they intend to close the SD PSB channels on Freeview in 2018. Some of the commercial channels are likely to follow suit.
It is likely that the C4 HD channels will remain (even after the reallocation of some of the TV spectrum to the mobile phone companies) as the way that the HD channels are broadcast is much more efficient.
Just over a year ago, I was told that these channels will probably be extended to other platforms in "the medium term".
In essence, it's Digital Switchover 2 as people with SD only boxes will gradually start to lose channels.