A new slot for a digital terrestrial HD television channel on Freeview has been made available according to Ofcom, which should mean a new HD channel coming to the UK airwaves very soon. Broadcasters are now able to submit applications for the new channel, but with BBC HD, BBC One HD, ITV 1 HD and 4HD already available, this seems like a good time for Channel5 to go HD.
It has taken a while for Ofcom to make this space available, with the delay due to the regulator having to reorganise existing TV services and adding the MPEG-4 and DVB-T2 standards – all needed to make space for spectrum hungry “HD” which needs about 4 times the bandwidth of a standard definition channel.