Ofcom: you can provide HDTV without using the digital dividend

The UK regulator has set out plans to squeeze four HDTV channels into the digital TV frequencies without removing any of the existing services or using any of the frequencies released by analogue switchoff.

Ofcom's plans are based on utilising the combined benefits of MPEG4 and DVB-T2. MPEG4 is a compression technology which is 100% more efficient that the current standard, MPEG2; DVB-T2 is a new transmission technology which offers 30% efficiency savings, says the regulator. Taken together and combined with other unrelated factors Ofcom argues that the capacity of the existing digital TV spectrum can be increased by 160%. This would allow the creation of four high definition (HDTV) channels or 20 new standard definition channels without losing any of the current digital terrestrial services.

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