Freeview could stick around for another two decades.
Arqiva — the transmissions firm responsible for bringing Freeview to your home — has put forward a plan to keep terrestrial television running until at least 2045, which would be a full decade longer than current licences allow.
Freeview TV's broadcast license is set to expire in 2034. For free-to-air broadcasts to continue beyond the current deadline, the UK Government will need to extend multiplex licences to allow television channels to leverage the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform, more commonly known as Freeview, to broadcast over the airwaves nationwide. This is similar to invisible highways that carry TV signals through the air to your aerial.
As it stands, these major multiplexes are currently run by public broadcasters — two by the BBC, one by ITV, one shared by ITV and Channel 4, and two by Arqiva.
However, Arqiva proposes to extend Freeview's deadline by cutting these multiplex licences in half. Instead of the six national multiplexes currently broadcasting Freeview channels, there would be just three.
This slimmed-down approach would slash broadcasting costs for the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 by more than 40%, according to the transmissions company. This may benefit the BBC, which is gearing up to launch a streaming set-top box to challenge the likes of Fire TV Stick, Roku, and Apple TV. Connected via Wi-Fi, it would enable viewers to stream live and on-demand content from the BBC without a traditional aerial.
Arqiva argues terrestrial broadcasting is the only way to guarantee everyone can watch telly, no matter where they live
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FREEVIEW PRESS OFFICE
Arqiva says it wants to modernise these multiplexes to something called DVB-T2, which is a more efficient broadcasting standard that can handle HD channels better. It would also free up the 600MHz band, which is responsible for powering 5G and 4G LTE networks for your mobiles.
These transmission stations are also incredibly large. Arquiva…