[gottago]

An absolute joke we weren't in this position over a decade ago.    France TV is now looking at launching UHD channels this year whilst Freeview still has no reasonable plan to even have HD as the norm.   

There is no reason now really why for the PSB muxes at least a conversion to HD can't be done to deliver the main ITV/C4 digital channels in HD as standard as well - you could convert D3&4 to T2 and have ITV2/3/4 and E4/More4/Film4 in HD with the rest on the mux in SD, and if the BBC mux is converted too (rather than used as a legacy SD mux) the BBC, ITV and C4 could effectively have one HD mux each, with C5 (main channel at least) and S4C accomodated.   

Ideally the COM muxes would then follow suit but not crucial, but if they switched each mux to T2 they could keep the same number of channels but upgrade 4 of them to HD, which would be sufficient to cover the most watched channels in the country and collectively with the PSB muxes offer around 30 channels in HD.

Unfortunately I can't really seeing there being an impetus on either the public or commercial side for any further conversion to HD now. The main PSBs are in HD (and regional) and I expect that's all that really matters to the government. I can't imagine they would be willing to support another digital switchover level campaign where people have to pay to upgrade equipment they (perhaps reluctantly) paid to upgrade when analogue was switched off; especially now during a cost of living crisis.

Similarly the commercial muxes aren't making anywhere near as much money as they used to as demand for digital linear channels decreases. The ITV annual report said SDN revenue has already dropped and will drop significantly further as long-term contracts - signed when Freeview was at its height - continue to expire and get renewed at far lower rates. I can't see them willingly investing in something that would significantly increases the amount of slots they can offer. Channels would have more leverage to negotiate lower prices when there's plenty of slots available. Even if they limit the number of slots by having HD channels, what's in it for mux operators when they're already carrying the channels in SD anyway? Worth mentioning there was nothing in that ITV report at all about preparing for any sort of investment in SDN in the future.

Perhaps the SD equipment used by muxes will become legacy and significantly more expensive to maintain in the long term? I don't know anything whatsoever about the technical side so don't even know if this would necessarily even be the case, but perhaps that's the only way T2 conversion could eventually happen. But then chances are by then the question will be if DTT itself is even worth maintaining.