Public broadcasters across Europe, including RTÉ and France Télévisions, join forces to develop 5G Broadcast. But will the UK go it alone?
Ahead of this year’s World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23), public broadcasters across Europe have signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding greater cooperation on activities concerning 5G Broadcast in Europe.
5G Broadcast could ultimately replace the current digital terrestrial TV service (Freeview in the UK, Saorview in the Republic of Ireland), allowing broadcasters to switch to all-IP distribution but retaining a way of reaching audiences directly and free-to-air.
Cooperating broadcasters include Austria’s ORF/ORS, Ireland’s RTÉ and NPO in The Netherlands. Various jointly developed 5G Broadcast applications will be presented around the time of the 2024 Olympics.
The work will assist with assessing the feasibility of adopting and rolling out the new transmissions standard in the coming years.
However, for work on 5G Broadcast to develop, broadcasters will need guarantees that the current 470-694 MHz frequency band for TV services remains free of mobile services. The World Radiocommunications Conference is due to decide who is allowed to use these frequencies after 2030.
What is 5G Broadcast?
A method of making audio-visual content available to viewers and listeners using 5G technology, but via the transmitter network and frequencies currently used for digital terrestrial television.
Consumers will be able to access the service on compatible TVs, tablets and phones, without the need for a SIM or mobile contract. 5G Broadcast can send content and data to large numbers of users, for example during live events, without the network congestion and buffering sometimes associated with online streaming services.
5G Broadcast can broadcast alongside existing digital terrestrial television services as it can be configured to sit within existing UHF channels. Mobile 5G services on the other hand take up a much wider chunk of spectrum for down and uplinks, which means digital terrestrial TV, 5G Broadcast and mobile networks can’t use the same frequency band without interference issues.
Being able to transmit 5G Broadcast services alongside digital terrestrial TV means it would be possible to transition viewers from one platform to another, in a similar manner to analogue to digital TV transmissions.
Will the UK go it alone?
While many of Europe’s broadcasters are getting on board with 5G Broadcast, there has been very little said about its adoption in the UK.
Some broadcasters are keen to just switch viewers to either fixed or mobile broadband services and deliver TV services through them. The resulting loss of a free-to-view method of watching TV could then be solved by offering social tariffs for some households.
The BBC has been working on some 5G Broadcast related projects. Notably, it ran a trial in Orkney broadcasting BBC Radio via 5G Broadcast. And earlier this year, the broadcaster won the EBU Technology & Innovation Award for its work on a private 5G network that can be used to for news contributions at major national events, such as the Coronation.
Marc Thornham