Business of Digital Television

3 The adoption of digital

 

Over the last 75 years, analogue television has been developed to its technological and spectrum limits. There is not a developed nation that could find unallocated spectrum to create another national television channel. The UK’s Channel 5, barely reaching much over 70 per cent of the terrestrial audience in analogue, is a case in point, showing what can be achieved by mopping up the last remaining unallocated slices of spectrum. Channel 5 gets 100 per cent coverage from satellite and will get improved distribution from its digital terrestrial distribution.

The UK is typical of the rest of Europe – and most developed countries – in fully utilizing its analogue broadcast spectrum. In the UK, this equates to potential ...