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Digital UK is a British television communications company owned by the

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(1922), ITV (1955),

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

(1982) and Channel 5 (1997) which supports

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

viewers and channels. It provides information about receiving

terrestrial TV Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an anten ...

and advice on reception and equipment. The company also handles day-to-day technical management of the Freeview

Electronic Programme Guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...

(EPG), allocates channel numbers and manages the launch of new services and multiplexes onto the platform. Digital UK has been licensed by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

as an EPG provider. In 2015 Digital UK and Freeview developed

Freeview Play Freeview is the United Kingdom's sole Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by Digital UK Ltd and DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV plc, ITV, Channel ...

, a connected TV service offering both live

linear TV Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast automation ...

and on-demand content, including a range of popular catch-up players. The service is available on both TVs and

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

es and is now widely supported by more than 20 manufacturer brands. Digital UK leads development of the Freeview Play product specification which is based on

open standards An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a prerequisite to use open license, non-discrimination and extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in the development. There is no single definitio ...

, working with manufacturers and industry bodies. From 2008 to 2012, Digital UK led the implementation of digital TV switchover and oversaw the clearance of terrestrial TV services from the 800 MHz band of spectrum to prepare for the launch of 4G mobile broadband services. Digital UK was formed on 13 April 2005 as SwitchCo, adopting its present name five months later. It is based in Mortimer Street in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

, London. The company completed the first pilot digital switchover in Whitehaven, Cumbria in 2007, and the last switchover was completed in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

on 24 October 2012. In July 2021 Digital UK acquired

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

the free to air satellite television platform, from the BBC and ITV and formally merged into Digital UK. In December 2021, Channel 5 joined the venture, marking it as "the first time that the venture has been wholly owned by all four PSBs".

Duties

Switchover communication

Digital UK was responsible for explaining the switchover from analogue to digital television broadcasting to the public and provided information to consumers through a website and a telephone helpline.

Transmitter work

One of the main reasons for switchover was to allow reception of digitals signals through normal aerials and digital terrestrial television, usually known in the UK as

. Before switchover began, around one quarter of the UK public could not receive Freeview, because the digital signal was broadcast at low power in order not to interfere with analogue television. By switching the analogue signal off, it became possible to increase Freeview coverage. When switchover was completed, 98.5% of UK homes were able to receive the service. Extending Freeview involved re-engineering work at 1,150 transmitter sites across the country between 2008 and 2012. Digital UK was responsible for co-ordinating this work, which was carried out region by region.

Suppliers

Digital UK also worked with electrical manufacturers and retailers and promoted the 'digital tick' logo, a certification mark for the public that identifies TV equipment in stores that will work before, during and after digital switchover.

Switchover Help Scheme

Digital UK worked alongside the BBC-run

Switchover Help Scheme The Switchover Help Scheme was part of the digital television switchover process in the United Kingdom. Funded by an increase in the TV licence fee, and administered by the BBC on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, it aimed ...

, which helped older and disabled people convert one of their sets to digital.

Previous shareholders

Until March 2021,

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

was a shareholder of Digital UK, but was asked to stand down by the other shareholders at the time. Arqiva subsequently went through a process of restructuring.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Digital television in the United Kingdom 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom 2021 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in the City of Westminster Private companies limited by guarantee of the United Kingdom