Chris

(A reply to a post Hugh since deleted, but I’m not deleting this as it took ages to write)

First thing is, what’s being proposed is a *version* of 5g, not actual 5g as currently being rolled out for cellular data. At its most basic it would replace the current DVB-T2 standard used by Freeview. More channels in less bandwidth and lower latency, bringing the digital delay down to almost real-time.

Such a system would be delivered over the existing transmitter infrastructure, but it has the potential to be integrated with 5g cellular networks and seamlessly integrate the return path you need for interactive services.

A major benefit for our national data infrastructure is that at present, if I access BBC1 as broadcast via the iPlayer, the BBC has to send a dedicated data stream to me. If the IPTV nirvana OB believes in were to come to pass, there could potentially be several million people at a time, each receiving a dedicated stream, utilising terabytes of data, on those occasions when we do all actually want to watch linear to at the same time. Today, of course, millions of us access the same broadcast signal and the power requirement at the transmitter doesn’t change no matter how many of us there are. In a Freeview system operating on 5g broadcast, if I access the iPlayer and select a programme presently being broadcast live, the system provides me the broadcast signal, not a dedicated stream.

None of which is set in stone as things stand - the standards are not agreed and it would take a while to get hardware manufacturers on board for yet another change to the broadcast standard. But the ability to force a user onto a high-bandwidth broadcast signal, where one is available, and when they don’t actually need a dedicated IP data stream, is I suspect part of the potential prize here.