Ofcom reveals high def terrestrial TV plan

Reshuffle and new tech required, regulator says

High definition TV (HD TV) looks set to finally arrive through regular TV aerials thanks to plans revealed by Ofcom today.

The Government broadcasting and telecoms regulator said it was possible to deliver four dedicated high def channels over the existing digital terrestrial television (DTT) network, without any need to take up additional chunks of the radio spectrum.

The plans will come as a bitter blow to broadcasters behind the HDForAll campaign . They're were hoping to use the parts of the spectrum currently being used for analogue TV, which will be freed up once digital switchover is complete in 2012.

Instead it looks like Ofcom will merely enforce a reshuffle of the existing DTT capacity, and a partial shift to using MPEG-4 and/or DVB-T2 video compression technology for the new services.

The old analogue TV spectrum will most likely be auctioned off to the phone networks so they can deliver mobile TV , faster mobile internet connections and other features.