Free HDTV for
everyone..?
Freesat promises to bring free, high-definition TV for
everyone. Surely there must be a catch? Well, yes.
A
s of 2012, traditional analogue
TV in the UK is doomed. Long
live digital. But as well as the
established Freeview option,
there’s now Freesat, another free-to-air
service that needs no subscription. Using
the existing satellite networks, it’s making
some bold claims compared to Freeview: a
line-up of 200 channels by the end of the
year (compared to around 70), plus 98% UK
coverage (against about 73%). But a handful
of these will also be in high-definition,
including BBC HD and, exclusively for now,
ITV HD. By contrast, we’re at least a year
away from any HD broadcasts on Freeview
at all and, even then, there are already
concerns about its picture quality. So, if
you’ve already got a satellite dish installed,
you’re laughing: Freesat is good to go. If not,
it’ll be somewhere between a wry grin and
a grimace, as you pay out £49 for a standard
set-top box (£120 for an HD-capable one),
plus a further £80 for dish installation. And
therein lies the catch: not everyone wants
(or can have) a dish strapped onto their
house. So while we’re thrilled about the
prospect of free HD for ‘everyone’, we’re not
quite over the moon yet.
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