BBC
and Crown Castle to champion digital for everyone
The
BBC and Crown Castle UK welcome today's decision by the Independent
Television Commission (ITC).
The
ITC has offered the licence for Multiplex "B" to the BBC
and the remaining two licences for Multiplexes "C" and
"D" to Crown Castle.
The
new licences, which fell vacant following the collapse of ITV Digital,
will run for 12 years.
Greg
Dyke, Director-General, BBC said: "This is a fresh start for
digital television in the UK and the best outcome for viewers.
"It
won't be an easy task - the platform has been through a major crisis
- but we believe that a simple, entirely free-to-view digital option
has the best chance of success with consumers."
Peter
Abery, President and Managing Director, Crown Castle added: "We
are delighted by this decision from the ITC.
"We
will now be working closely with the BBC to get the digital terrestrial
platform, free from the technical problems that dogged ITV Digital,
back up and running as quickly as possible."
The
BBC and Crown Castle will work together with other DTT licence holders,
broadcasters, manufacturers and retailers to ensure the long-term
success of the platform.
In
total, the ITC received six applications for the multiplex licences.
In
addition to the complementary applications from the BBC and Crown
Castle, there were linked applications from the Digital Terrestrial
Alliance (ITV companies Carlton and Granada with Channel 4) and
Freeview Plus.
Other
applications came from SDN, a company owned by United Business Media,
S4C and NTL, and another from venture capital firm Apax.
Notes
to Editors
1.
DTT
DTT
(Digital Terrestrial Television) provides a range of digital television
services to viewers via their existing aerials. The three multiplexes
now being applied for were formerly used by ITV Digital.
2.
Proposed Free-To-View Package
The
channel line-up for the platform is expected to be as follows (channels
new to the platform shown in bold):
Mixed
Genre
BBC ONE
BBC TWO
BBC CHOICE
ITV 1
ITV 2
Channel 4
Channel 5
S4C *
A general entertainment channel (tbc)
News
and Sports News
BBC NEWS 24
Sky News
Sky Sports News
CNN
ITN
Culture,
History & Ideas
BBC FOUR
UK History
Movies
TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
Children's
CBBC
CBeebies
Boomerang
Citizenship
BBC PARLIAMENT
The Community Channel
S4C2 *
Music
A music channel (tbc)
Other
Sky Travel
QVC
TV Travelshop
Interactivity
BBCi (Interactive television and text)
Other interactive services (tbc)
Radio
6 BBC Radio services
Commercial radio services (tbc)
Notes
to Editors
The
Independent Television Commission's press
release
(The
BBC is not responsilbe for the content of external internet sites)
More
about the BBC's digital services and how to receive them at bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/digital
*
S4C and S4C2 only available in Wales.
Previous
press releases
BBC
and Crown Castle submit complementary applications for digital terrestrial
television licences
BBC
reassures DTT viewers
BBC
statement on ITV Digital
Culture,
controversy and cutting edge documentary: BBC FOUR prepares to launch
CBBC
Goes Digital
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