Shock survey: HD hardware owners want HD programmes on Freeview

Here’s a surprise (not) — 98% of the 450 people involved in the closed trial of HD broadcasts on digital terrestrial (aka Freeview) boxes think that Freeview should carry HD services. In fact, they expect it.

My first thought — okay, my first proper thought, after “what were the other 2% thinking?” — is that they’ll have a long wait. As we’ve said before, there just isn’t the capacity to run HD broadcasts on Freeview at the moment. And, while there may well be additional capacity once the analogue signal is switched off in 2012, there’s still no guarantee that any of that spare spectrum will be available for any form of broadcasting, let alone HD.

Still, this report will add ammunition to any organisations lobbying for at least some of the post-2012 spectrum to be handed back to the broadcasters. And to be honest, it really should. While the Government may have their eyes on a spectrum sale as a lucrative way of raising cash (as with the 3G phone spectrum auction a few years back), the BBC is currently having to foot a substantial bill for part of the switchover process. Financial assistance for the elderly and those on benefits to help with converting from analogue to digital will be coming out of the BBC’s licence fee settlement; a bill mentioned in last week’s Queen Speech will provide the Corporation with access to benefits records so that they can manage the payments more effectively.

And yet, despite this assistance having to come from the licence fee, the Treasury have been briefing that the BBC should expect a below-inflation increase for the next four years, instead of the above-inflation deal that the Corporation has been asking for. If we, the broadcasting audience, has to pay for the switchover through the licence fee, then we ought to at least get the benefits through reuse of the freed spectrum — without having to pay for it all over again.