BBC Trust and Ofcom report on BBC's HDTV service

Gets thumbs up so far...

18 September 2007 16:05 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The BBC Trust Unit has published its Public Value Assessment of the BBC's proposals for a high definition television channel.

In addition, Ofcom has also produced a report looking at Market Impact Assessment, also released today.

The Trust will consider both documents before it makes reaches its provisional conclusions on the proposals, due to be published on Tuesday 25th September.

It seems the Public Value Assessment was overall positive - stating that the service would deliver a medium to high level of public value, but proposed some conditions it wants to BBC to adhere to.

Ofcom’s Market Impact Assessment found that the BBC offering a free-to-view HDTV channel would be "unlikely to have significant negative market impacts".

If the proposals go ahead, the BBC's proposed high definition television channel will launch on all digital television platforms – digital satellite, digital cable and digital terrestrial.

At launch the channel would offer between three and four hours per day later growing to nine hours by the end of 2008. The channel would also be available on the Internet when technical and financial considerations make it possible.

Ofcom made some recommendations - that the BBC need to ensure there's a good genre mix, that they work on an HD-capable IPTV channel and that development of consumer electronics compatible with the anticipated DVB-T2 transmission technology is taken into account.

Full tags

Home Cinema, HDTV, BBC, Ofcom