The BBC Announces Freeview HD Rollout

November 16, 2009 World Screen

LONDON: The BBC has confirmed that it will make HD services on Freeview available to 50 percent of the U.K. population in time for next June’s World Cup, and to 98.5 percent by the end of digital switchover in three years’ time.

 
The Freeview HD rollout has been accelerated with an advance network so that viewers in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham receive signals by the end of March 2010.
 
The majority of viewers will come into coverage at the same time that they go through digital switchover—including viewers in Manchester in December 2009 and those in Cardiff, who will get Freeview HD by the end of March 2010.
 
For the 7 percent of the U.K. population who switched before December 2009, a retrofit program will bring them into coverage before the end of November 2010.