BBC announces timetable for Freeview HD rollout

The BBC has release its timetable enabling HD services on Freeview to be available to 50% of the population in time for next June’s World Cup and to 98.5% of the population by the end of digital switchover in three years’ time.
The majority of viewers will get coverage at the same time as digital switchover in their region. For the 7% of the UK population who switched before December 2009, a retrofit programme will bring them into coverage before the end of November 2010.
New “DVB-T2” technology will deliver an increase in capacity of 67% to the BBC’s Multiplex B, efficiently creating the space needed for UK public service broadcasters’ HD transmissions. The UK will be the first country in the world to launch this new standard. To view Freeview HD, viewers will need equipment suitable to receive and decode DVB-T2 and MPEG-4 coded transmissions. Freeview HD receivers (set-top boxes, digital television recorders and integrated televisions) will be available from early 2010.
Source: DTG
Item added: 16th November 2009