BBC Bosses Reveal Freeview’s Future: Aerials To Disappear

The way we watch TV in the UK is facing its biggest shake-up since we all binned our old analogue sets for digital ones.

During a parliamentary grilling last week, BBC bosses revealed their plans for a major shift to internet-based television that will transform Freeview as we know it, while making it crystal clear they won’t be the ones coughing up for the nationwide conversion costs.

BBC bigwigs Tim Davie (Director General) and Dr Samir Shah (Chair) faced MPs at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on March 4, giving us a peek at how Auntie plans to handle this massive tech transition over the next decade – and what it means for your viewing habits and the future of free-to-air TV in the UK.

Farewell to the Aerial?

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve got a TV with either an aerial poking out of your roof or a satellite dish stuck to your wall – alongside any streaming devices and services.

But as we reported back in November, the government’s own research predicts that by 2040, more than 70% of UK homes will have ditched traditional broadcast methods entirely, getting all their television through their broadband connection instead.

This major shift to IPTV (Internet Protocol Television – just a fancy way of saying “TV through the internet”) will affect not just the BBC but the entire Freeview platform and how millions of us watch television.

During the committee session, Tim Davie made the BBC’s stance abundantly clear: they’re on board with this direction of travel, but with one important condition – nobody gets left behind.

“We are a universal broadcaster,” Davie told MPs, emphasising that while the BBC wants to embrace internet TV, they won’t abandon viewers who might struggle with the transition.

The Working Group Tackling TV’s Future

This parliamentary session comes just months after the government launched a dedicated working group led by Media Minister Stephanie Peacock MP to examine the future of traditional TV broadcasting in the UK.

As we covered in November, this group was formed after alarming findings showed that while most of us will be watching TV via the internet by 2040, around 1.5 million households could find themselves cut off from the digital TV revolution.

The research, conducted by the University of Exeter, painted a detailed picture of how our viewing habits are changing:

• Homes relying solely on internet streaming have almost tripled in just five years
• By 2040, 95% of UK households will be able to watch TV over the internet
• 71% will rely exclusively on broadband delivery for their television
• 24% will be “hybrid homes” using both internet and traditional broadcast
• But 5% (around 1.5 million households) will still rely entirely on traditional broadcast TV.

Those most likely to be left behind are older people (particularly over-75s), people living alone, lower-income households, rural communities, people with disabilities, and residents in the North of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

What Does This Mean For Freeview?

For the 18 million UK homes currently using Freeview, this signals a gradual but inevitable change in how you’ll access free channels.

While the BBC isn’t suggesting we’ll all need to bin our aerials tomorrow, Davie was refreshingly honest about the future:

“Digging in purely on DTT [the technical term for Freeview] is not where the BBC is. The BBC would like to be part of a proactive transition of the UK to fully digitised households.”

In plain English? Freeview as we know it – the service that delivers dozens of channels through your TV aerial – won’t disappear overnight, but its days are numbered as the industry shifts towards internet delivery.

Meanwhile, Freeview faces additional technical challenges. The UK is notably behind other European countries in upgrading its TV broadcasting technology.

While countries like France, Italy, and Spain have moved to more efficient broadcasting standards (DVB-T2), the UK is still largely using older technology from the 1990s (DVB-T and MPEG2).

This technological lag could become particularly problematic after 2031, when TV broadcasters might need to share their broadcast frequencies with mobile phone companies. The older technology uses more broadcast spectrum, which could mean fewer channels would be available if the spectrum needs to be shared.

We’ve Been Here Before

If you’re old enough to remember the digital switchover (when all those analogue TV signals were turned off between 2008 and 2012), you’ll know we’ve navigated big television transitions before.

Dr Shah reminisced about his front-row seat during that previous changeover: “I was on the main board of the BBC when we did the digital switchover. We were conscious, as the board will be now, that we would not leave people behind.”

He added with a hint of nostalgia: “I remember the moment we switched off. There was always a small group of people we could manage, but the direction of travel is clear. People will move to on-demand and IPTV.”

The BBC clearly believes it can use this past experience to ensure that vulnerable viewers aren’t suddenly left staring at blank screens when the next big switch happens.

“Not Our Bill To Pay”

While the BBC is committed to helping viewers navigate the change, they were crystal clear about one thing: they don’t think they should be footing the bill for the infrastructure needed to make it happen.

When asked directly who should pay for ensuring no one gets left behind, Davie couldn’t have been clearer: “I think we should be responsible for making brilliant programming and communicating how our services work.

“I definitely don’t think we should be paying for a switchover in that way. That’s not what the licence fee is paying for.”

In other words, the BBC expects the government to cover the costs of ensuring universal access in the IPTV era – especially for those vulnerable households that might struggle with the transition.

This stance comes as the BBC is already grappling with significant challenges to its funding model. During the same committee session, Dr Shah and Davie faced extensive questioning about TV Licence fee reforms, including potential decriminalisation of non-payment and options for a more progressive payment system based on household income.

The “Nightlight” Option

One solution being considered for Freeview and Freesat is something the TV boffins call a “nightlight” service – keeping a stripped-back version of Freeview running after most channels have moved online, providing just the essentials (like BBC, ITV and news channels) for those who haven’t made the switch.

But even this compromise creates headaches. As Davie admitted: “We have to decide and ensure that we are not running two expensive distribution systems, because that would hobble us.”

Running both internet and traditional broadcasting systems simultaneously would be a massive drain on resources – money that could otherwise go into making shows we actually want to watch.

This matches one of the three potential paths for Freeview’s future that Ofcom outlined earlier this year:

1. Upgrading the platform with modernised technology
2. Reducing Freeview to a core “nightlight” service
3. Establishing a roadmap for completely phasing out traditional aerial TV broadcasting

The Broadband Challenge

A key issue in this transition is not just the availability of broadband but its affordability and usability for all sections of society.

While the government aims to have superfast broadband available to at least 99.65% of homes by 2030, the current average monthly broadband cost in the UK (£26.90) represents a significant barrier for some households.

Around 100,000 households currently cite cost as their main reason for not having internet access, and although discounted “social tariffs” are available for lower-income households, only 220,000 homes currently use these tariffs, despite 4.3 million households being eligible.

What About Freely?

You might also remember Freely – the new service launched in April 2024 that aims to bridge the gap between traditional Freeview and internet-based viewing.

While Freely represents a step towards this hybrid future, its current limitations (only available on 2024 and newer TV sets from certain manufacturers) mean it’s not yet the complete solution to this transition.

The parliamentary session didn’t dive into Freely specifically, but it’s clear that similar hybrid approaches will be crucial in managing this massive shift in how we consume television.

Furthermore, Freely currently has a very limited selection of streaming channels -from the public broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and STV), UKTV, and a few others that were recently added.

But all the other, smaller channels that are currently available on Freeview are absent from Freely’s streaming section and still require an aerial.

What This Means For Your TV

For most of us, there’s no need to panic or rush out to buy new equipment just yet. The major changes discussed aren’t expected to begin until after 2030, giving plenty of time for preparation.

If you’re already streaming most of your TV through iPlayer, Netflix, Disney+ and the like, you’re ahead of the curve. But for the millions who still rely primarily on Freeview or Freesat through an aerial or dish, changes will eventually come.

The trickiest part will be ensuring that certain groups don’t get left behind – particularly:

• Older people, especially those over 75
• People living alone
• Lower-income households
• Those in rural communities with patchy broadband
• People with disabilities

For the BBC and Freeview, the challenge is balancing the inevitable shift to internet-based television with their obligation to serve everyone.

As Shah put it: “We need time to reduce the number of people who could be left behind, and then it will be a matter of judgement when we decide that we have done as best we can and then we switch.”

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