AROUND THE WORLD | Poland is the latest country to undergo an upgrade of its digital terrestrial television service to the latest broadcast standards.
During December, the national multiplex MUX3, carrying the main public service broadcasting channels from TVP switched to the DVB-T2/HEVC standard, following previous migrations of other multiplexes.
The move means viewers can now receive a vast range of free-to-air TV channels in HD, with the option for 4K UHD broadcasts. A small number of channels continue to broadcast in sub-HD picture quality.
DVB-T2 is the second generation terrestrial broadcast standard, which was only partially adopted in the UK. It’s widely adopted across all major TV markets in continental Europe. HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) is the next generation encoding above MPEG-4. Used together, broadcasters can maximise bandwidth to carry more HD channels per multiplex, or use capacity for 4K/UHD, which is about to happen in France. Italy is also upgrading its terrestrial TV service. Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic are among the countries that have already adopted DVB-T2/HEVC.
But the changeover has only had relatively little impact on viewers. TVs manufactured in the last decade will have DVB-T2 support by default. And manufacturers have included HEVC support for some time, too. As a result almost all smart TVs, including all 4K UHD TV have both DVB-T2 and HEVC support built in.
Viewers in Poland can access additional channels if their TV is connected to the internet, with a portal broadcast terrestrially taking viewers to extra services from TVP.
Could an upgrade happen in the UK?
Although terrestrial TV broadcasting has received a reprieve thanks to the recent decision of the World Radiocommunications Conference to retain frequencies for TV use, there’s been very little investment in Freeview. The launch of two new temporary DVB-T2 multiplexes in 2013, that was meant to be the catalyst for a wider migration to the newer standard, fizzled out.
Sky ensured that HD offshoots from ITV and Channel 4 remained behind the paywall. ITV’s deal with Sky only coming to an end after the threat of an all-HD Freeview subsided. Meanwhile, the BBC struggled to fund any improvements to the service – resulting in a long delay for a full HD upgrade.
And while the HD services on Freeview currently use MPEG4 video encoding, and a switch to HEVC could boost the number of channels carried, there’s certainly no push to adopt this in the UK.
▶ Around the World
As 2023 ends, a look at how other countries are developing their TV platforms as viewers expect more HD, 4K and more streaming.
- Spain: where HD, not SD channels are being turned off
- Italy plans terrestrial TV switch to DVB-T2/HEVC, but also trials new DVB-I fallback service