[Technologist]

Satellite is likely to die before Freeview is turned off or at least around the sane time.
So the solution is IP ….

But how much linear tv will there be ??

The likely answer is likely to be more than one but less than two dozen.
As most viewing will be on demand ….
This will be what ever PSB channels exist (does the uk need 4uk wide psbs?)
The say about half a dozen COBA channels from the BBC itv Ch4 ch 5 Discovery and Sky
Which act a barker channels for the VOD services ,,,,

If you are delivering by IP there is so much more data that the broadcaster can get
(And needs …..) as there is the return channel and a near unique identifier for the viewing device….. so there needs to be a means if getting this back to the broadcaster…
At the moment this is done by the broadcasters (VOD) app…..
So this seems a good way of doing it …. So as now a platform front end EPG calls up an App and a channel a bit like the mux/uhf frequency and channel SID we do at present on emitted services..
the intermediate technology can be a CDN for fixed/fibre …noting the the BBC has BiDi
And that Sky is the second largest UK domestic ISP.
For IP on the move or for fixed wireless by the end of thus decade 5G media broadcast will be available and thus who is wanting the stream should be able to signal and feed back at least basic data to the broadcaster via the mobile comony….. but it would be nice if there was only one of these at each site …from a spectrum usage point uf view.
That is a technical commercial issue at the Moment….

But the stream may not from the VOD broadcasters app
….. and how many wireless STB will there be?
..just add a hdmi connection to your 5G tablet or phone,
…… and does the same apply for wired STB ?

So there is no broadcast specific hardware in the home ……
Thus no place for Freeview/Sat play.
So,a Freeview or someone’s EPG App reference the broadcasters app.

Politically for some reason DTT has been given much emphasis ….
But now it is on under half the first TVs ….
And declining as the number of second third etc tv
(which are overwhelmingly DTT)
declines as VOD viewing on tablet Is growing….

Some similar arguments apply to the audio only / radio services

Thus to answer the question..is it worth taking Freeview T2?

The answer may be one uk wide mux as this is fairly cheap to do
Say 20 coder instances and 100/200 modulators at the transmitters
Or a single modulation at the coder and apply that to a transmitter .
So if you drop the PSB requirement to emit SD
and a bit of juggling of radio service …..
and some broadcaster COBA services going HD …
You can end up with a PSB mux (3 )
and a uk wide COBA T2 mux with fewer than existing channels ….. some in HD others not…
And close PSB 1 …..

But who pays for say 15 years of Arqiva contracted to broadcast a mux that does not exist
Of renegotiate the recent contract with BT M&B …. To about 10% of what it is …
And get government agreement to this ! …
And get the COBA broadcasters affected by this to pay more

That’s why the Vaizey plan was so good…
Government mandated changes with a good 15+ years life to it.
And a step reducing of the PSB emission costs .

That would have worked …. But if things are done it needs ti be soon!
And it probably is worth doing something with Hbbtv
to make Freeview/play have more life For the next 10+years …

But how many PSB and COBA both PSB owned and others over the next ten years
is far from certain ….. so does Freeview become more or less it was at launch ..
PSB plus QVC ?

It’s not simple or that certain.
And certainly not the thing I was planning in 2008 to move to more T2 AVC AAC in the future,
After all IPlayer was under a year old!