Stakeholders in UK DTT switch-off fight over timelines
The saga of the UK’s switchover to an all-broadband TV future moved up a notch with the publication of a government paper Watch this Space: A new strategic direction for UK media that offers twin-tracks to an inevitable transition.
A fast-tracked scheme to switch off the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) network favoured by public service broadcasters (PSBs) including the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 and 5 would be complete by 2034. A decade-long extension to ensure universal access to PSB content is guaranteed is, not surprisingly, favoured by transmission provider Arqiva whose current contract for DTT provision expires in 2034.
Financial ratings agency S&P subsequently said of Arqiva, “A potential 2034 shutdown represents a downside scenario to our rating. Furthermore, Arqiva continues to face structural headwinds as the accelerating shift toward IPTV threatens its long-term earnings.”
The PSB argument for 2034
Essentially this boils down to cost and cash-strapped PSBs.
A Future TV Taskforce, which comprises UK PSBs and Everyone TV (a free TV platform run by the PSBs that supports IPTV (Freely) PTV), terrestrial (Freeview) and satellite (Freesat) delivery welcomed the proposals as recognising the consumer-led shift towards internet-delivered television.
Jonathan Thompson, chair of the Future TV Taskforce and CEO of Everyone TV, said, “As part of a wider move towards a fully inclusive digital society in the mid-2030s, we support a carefully managed transition in which no one is left behind.”
They provided figures that the number of UK homes without broadband was 1.2 million at the end of 2025 and that this would drop to 220,000 by 2034.
Maintaining a nationwide DTT infrastructure to service this minority is considered by the BBC to be “inappropriate for the corporation and licence fee payers” and would threaten cuts in content.
Media regulator Ofcom said as such in its review of public service media last year: “Within the next few years delivering TV universally on DTT will go from being a significant benefit to the PSBs, to a substantial obligation they will need to finance. This would mean more investment being diverted into distribution, rather than commissioning content that benefits all audiences and the creative industries.”
Commercial PSBs make a similar point in the paper, warning that “any additional investment in distribution reduces the funds available for investment in UK content.”
In addition, they say that 97% of households would have nothing more to pay if DTT was replaced with IPTV today. Since 95% already pay for broadband and 56% of non-internet users already pay for a landline telephone and these lines will be replaced by IP-delivered lines in the next two years.
The case for 2044
Incumbent tech provider Arqiva played on fears that a poorly managed transition “would be consumer sensitive, reinforcing the case to consider a more cautious, hybrid approach rather than a simple ‘runway’ to IPTV.”
It commissioned an alternative view which projects a higher figure of about 2.9 million households by 2025 that would use still require a DTT tuner as the primary means of watching linear on the main TV.
It also claimed that DTT “offers secure, resilient distribution because Arqiva is held to service levels that do not apply to IPTV.”
This is particularly important during national events and emergencies, when IP networks may be congested or unavailable.
Arqiva proposes to switch to a hybrid Freeview service from 2034 including an upgrade from DVB-T to DVB-T2 using MPEG-4 AVC. All legacy DVB-T capacity would be retired from 2035 and replaced by three DVB-T2 multiplexes, one PSB multiplex at about 98.5% coverage and two commercial multiplexes both at about 90% coverage.
Doing so would reduce DTT transmission charges from about £231 million a year today to about £139m from 2035 or roughly £123m if the DVB-T2 refresh is funded from auctioning off some of the DTT spectrum for mobile operation.
The share of these Arqiva charges falling to the PSBs would drop accordingly from £156m today to £87m a year (or £78m with auction funding). These figures exclude broadcasters’ own distribution, coding and multiplexing costs, as well as wider implementation costs.
Yet this modelling cuts no ice with the PSBs. In the Paper they call even the £78m annual charge “unmanageably high post 2034.”
Their assessment is that the cost of maintaining a universal PSB multiplex, particularly for commercial PSBs, would exceed their ability to operate it economically while continuing to deliver PSB content to all audiences.
Over a decade the cost to maintain DTT would run close to £1 billion.
The case for better DTT
There is a group who are happy with neither approach. TV manufacturers and operating system providers, represented by techUK-CE-S\&T describe wants the DTT infrastructure to be beefed up to DVB-T2 using HEVC and therefore pave the way for UHD channel upgrades.
They point out that other European markets are demonstrating “credible” pro-DTT pathways; upgrading DTT to support HD and UHD (France and Spain) or using DVB-I to integrate broadcast and IP services (Germany and Italy).
The upgraded platform would not support more efficient codecs but addressable advertising would be enabled in more homes, it argues (although by IP connectivity rather than by DVB-T2 itself(. A refreshed platform would also keep open the prospect of future 5G broadcast services, subject to viable use cases and device support.
What’s next?
A switch-off date will now be set, with ministers consulting on the two potential timelines. An announcement is due by end of the year.
The government itself has hinted that it favours 2024. Media minister Ian Murray said: “We are leaning in the green paper to 2034 because there are massive benefits. The really important thing is no one is left behind and we will have a very strong strategy from government to ensure that is the case.”
However, a poll found that nearly half of respondents would oppose paying the £180 licence fee if its content were only available online.
UK to force social media to tweak algorithms in favour of PSBs
The document also contains proposals to give greater prominence and discoverability to UK PSB content on social media platforms.
The regulator said broadcasters should work “urgently” with YouTube to ensure their content was easy to find on fair commercial terms, describing this as particularly important for news and children’s programming.
The government claims the plan would make it easier for people to find trusted news sources online and could legislate to bring about the change.
The move comes as media consumption continues to shift online. According to Ofcom, social media is now the primary source of news for three-quarters of 16-24 year-olds, while more than half of UK adults use social platforms to access news.
Despite this news on the BBC and ITV are still seen as more trustworthy than other sources found online and on social media.
Rules of this kind already apply to TV. The Media Act 2024 requires connected platforms such as smart TVs and streaming sticks to give prominence to public service on-demand services, including iPlayer and ITVX.
The UK government has already announced a ban on under-16s using social media platforms from next spring.
Separately, the Green Paper suggests widening the number of key sports events that are mandatory to be made available for free on traditional TV and online. The current list of events including the soccer World Cup, the Olympics, the FA Cup, the Grand National, and Wimbledon tennis.
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