The government in the United Kingdom is considering the future of television distribution, which could affect the prospects of the digital terrestrial platform that is marketed at Freeview. Strangely, the organisation responsible for Freeview, and the public service broadcasters that fund it, wants to switch if off by 2034. Naturally, the organisation responsible for providing the transmission network suggests that this could be premature.
A report suggests that switching off Freeview as early as 2034 would be an unprecedented gamble with a service on which millions depend, with costs and risks of a different order to magnitude to digital switchover.
Arqiva, the transmission network operator, has shared a plan with government, recently reported by informitv, which would maintain universal access to public service broadcasting, reduce costs to broadcasters, release spectrum for other use, preserve national infrastructure resilience, and avoid potentially damaging impacts on radio broadcasting and other uses of shared tower infrastructure.
“This is not broadcast versus broadband,” says Shuja Khan, the chief executive of Arqiva. “It’s about ensuring both can coexist while the market transitions.”
He also notes that it is about resilience. The broadcast network is a sovereign, physically distributed infrastructure reaching over 98.5% of households that delivers not only television but also underpins radio and emergency services.
“Our proposal is not about preserving the status quo, it is about managing change responsibly, reflecting how people consume content today, while enabling where the market is going,” he says. “At Arqiva, we are clear that we have a stake in this outcome. But our proposal is grounded in the evidence: on audience behaviour, infrastructure, and long-term sustainability. This decision doesn’t require extremes. It requires judgement.
Everyone TV, the organisation that has developed Freely as a successor to Freeview, would like to see a switch-off date set to encourage adoption.
By the end of 2025, Freely was estimated to be in around 800,000 homes, and most of them were reported as also using terrestrial, satellite or cable television. The three largest brands have yet to support Freely, restricting it to around half of new television sales.
In contrast, open standards like DVB-I can support hybrid services and a long-term transition to online delivery in a way that can be supported by all manufacturers.
Proponents of switching off Freeview cite the precedent of the previous transition from analogue to digital television from 2008 to 2012.
They argue that switching off digital terrestrial television could save broadcasters about £100 million a year in transmission costs, conveniently assuming that online delivery does not involve costs.
Christy Swords is a consultant who has advised Arqiva. He was previously director of regulatory affairs at ITV and led their policy on the digital switchover process, serving on the board of Digital UK, the forerunner of Everyone TV.
He has published a report that suggests the comparison between transitioning to digital and switching off the digital terrestrial television network is misleading.
The report concludes that despite substantial changes in viewing habits and the television market in the United Kingdom, millions of homes are yet to switch to online television and there is very little incentive for them to do so, with many millions of homes likely to rely on digital terrestrial television through 2034 and beyond.
The alternative, advocating for a modernisation of the digital terrestrial television network, is that it can continue to deliver the current channel line-up, free spectrum for other purposes, delivering a windfall to the government, rather than an ongoing cost of subsidising broadband for vulnerable viewers.
Extending the life of digital terrestrial television, the author argues, will leave the country in a better position to deliver a full switch-off when the time is right.
Conversely, switching off Freeview as early as 2034 would be “a reckless and unnecessary policy gamble, putting at risk the universal and free television services enjoyed by every home in the country for decades”.
A False Comparison, Digital Switchover and Freeview Switch-off is published by Swords Consulting