[RichardCoulter]

I think I know where the 2035 date has come from; i've been told that this is when the contract for Arqiva to supply transmission facilities for the BBC expires. I've read an article by the BBC that says that the BBC intend to move over to internet delivery long term. I'll see if I can find it, if not i'll ask a contact who will know. There are now more people with some sort of internet access capable of streaming live TV available to them than there is Freeview coverage. I doubt it's a coincidence either that the two largest ISP's (Sky & BT) are also broadcasters.

In practice, I think that one PSB DTT mux will remain for some time after the rest of the frequencies have been sold off to the mobile phone companies. I imagine that people who complain about this will be told that they still have more channels than the analogue system that DTT replaced at DSO.

The internet isn't perfect and they will need to be able to get messages out to the public in an emergency, don't know if this is still the case, but there was a provision in the law that allows the Government to make the BBC the mouthpiece of the Government in such an emergency.

I think that, long term, this will apply to satellite delivery too. Sky have just signed a new contract with SES for their satellite capacity for another five years. This is much shorter than their previous agreements.