This...sucks

[nichomach]

Freeview lobby cries foul on Ofcom HDTV plans | The Register

A group of broadcasting industry firms has criticised Ofcom's plans for high definition TV on the Freeview platform, warning they are built to fail and risk undermining the future of terrestrial TV.

Ofcom has proposed that when the analogue switch-off completes in 2012, the spectrum should be sold off for new uses. It favours a plan that would see HDTV channels squeezed into the existing Freeview bandwidth using superior MPEG4 compression technology and the as-yet-incomplete DVB-T2 broadcasting standard. It would mean consumers buying new receiver equipment.

While Ofcom gets to sell off the remaining spectrum for lots of lovely SD shoipping/auction/gambling/lifestyle/oldies channels...

According to the Digital Television Group, a consortium that includes all the main broadcasters and several manufacturers, the plans "could seriously compromise Digital Terrestrial Television's long term viability". It reckons Ofcom is putting too much early faith in DVB-T2, for example. "These 'forward-looking' assumptions about timing, technology and transition are still to be convincingly demonstrated in practical systems", it said in a statement.

Basically, chuck out all your existing DVB-T receivers, and buy new ones which aren't available yet, since there isn't even a fully defined standard for them.

[dangel]

boy ofcom are dumb - or being paid off handsomely. First the 'we don't need high speed broadband' thing and now this?

gaaaaaahhhhhhh