It’s now the default way to receive TV for millions of households across the UK, but Freeview has only been around since October 2002.
Freeview reaches its 20 year milestone on the 30th October. It was originally set up to provide universal access to free-to-air digital television, back when multi-channel television generally meant pay TV. It launched in the aftermath of the collapse of ITV Digital, who had originally operated the UK’s digital terrestrial television platform.
Freeview came about as a result of a consortium between the BBC and Crown Castle (later Arqiva) and controversially Sky. ITV and Channel 4 joined later. Channel 5 only became a fully fledged part of the project last year.
In the beginning, the BBC took the lead in promoting Freeview. And the advert to accompany the launch of Freeview certainly grabbed viewer’s attention:
YouTube / BBC.
When Freeview launched, Sky and cable companies NTL and Telewest had around 10 million subscribers combined. The rest of the UK was reliant on TV through an aerial. Receivers for the service started at £99, but rapidly fell in subsequent years. Viewers with old ITV Digital boxes could still use them to watch Freeview for a number of years, before a technical change rendered them obsolete.
Competing with analogue TV
Back then, Freeview had to compete for space on the airwaves with analogue TV. To make the original low-powered signal easier to receive, the number of services that could fit on Freeview was limited. Extra channels included Sky Travel, Sky News, Sky Sports News, TMF, The Hits and from 2003, ftn and BBC Three. Sky was originally limited to running three services due to competition concerns.
But it grew rapidly, becoming the default digital TV service once analogue TV services had closed. The last remaining analogue terrestrial TV channels in the UK closed down ten years ago this month, when digital switchover completed in Northern Ireland.
And the next 20 years?
However, it’s not certain if Freeview will still be around to celebrate another milestone in 20 years. Globally, mobile network operators are eager to lay their hands on the remaining spectrum used for terrestrial TV.
Transmitter operator Arqiva has begun to lobby for the retention of digital terrestrial TV services beyond 2040 in a new campaign. But unlike a similar campaign on the continent, the UK’s main broadcasters including the BBC are conspicuously absent.
The Government recently released a white paper paving the way for the Freeview multiplex licences to be extended until 2034, although there’s a clause allowing the licences to be revoked from 2030. The legislation is itself under review following this summer’s political changes.
The creation of Freeview followed the collapse of ITV Digital. And Freeview’s 20th anniversary is also going to be linked to ITV, as the 20th anniversary takes place within days of the launch of ITVX – ITV’s latest attempt to reinvent itself, alongside an expected rebrand of the main channel back to ITV1.
Digital UK – Freeview’s platform manager – is meanwhile developing an online fallback service that will allow viewers to stream the main Freeview channels if they don’t have a terrestrial TV signal or an aerial.
It’s clear that as Freeview reaches its latest milestone, its future is going to be very different.
Iain Hatton
Reference notes: Sky TV subscribers 2002: 6.56 million (Oct-Dec 2002), NTL and Telewest combined 3.5 million. NTL and Telewest later became Virgin Media. The original licence for Multiplex C names BSkyB as a ‘relevant person’. In part 3 section 5, restrictions are placed on Sky’s services on the platform and the amount of capacity it was allowed to take.