Freeview changes: 29th/30th June as COM7 closes

[Keith]

There is no excuse for it not to happen. Yes, of course consideration needs to be given to those who may struggle should they need to upgrade (though anyone buying new Freeview equipment in the last 6 years won't need too) but ultimately with other areas of technology such as PCs/Laptops and Tablets/Phones we're used to having to upgrade every few years to get the best out of the technology, so TV should be no different.

And as is so often the case not taking action when it should have been taken makes it even more difficult in the long run. It's harder to justify changes which may impact the poorest now than it would have been 3-5 years ago, plus of course with COM7/8 now gone any changes of muxes will have to be done live, which based on what happened in 2010 would require a few months downtime to make the upgrades. Had these changes been made with COM7/8 in place they'd have been able to do it in a less disruptive manner.

Between 2023 and 2024 the mobile phone networks will be ceasing support for 3G. Hypothetically would it be possible for OFCOM to borrow part of this range for a temporary MUX?

If so the use of a temporary MUX using DVB-T would have allow an existing COM multiplexes to be transferred to the temporary one, and then once cleared that MUX could be upgraded to use DVB-T2, and channels then moved back. Repeat this process for all the existing commercial MUXs until COM4, COM5, and COM6 were all using DVB-T2. If needed PSB1 and PSB2 could be left as DVB-T to provide a legacy service for those with older TVs. (Arguably PSB2 could also be converted if ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 were also moved onto PSB1, to provide the equivalent of a pre-DSO service.)