High-definition television High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

in the United Kingdom is available via cable, IPTV, satellite and terrestrial television. The first high-definition broadcasts began in late 2005 and since then the number of channels available to view has grown to a maximum of 87 that can be viewed on pay-TV service,

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. The majority of channels in the United Kingdom remain broadcast, and largely viewed, in standard-definition but most major broadcasters have begun or are soon beginning their initial forays into high-definition television. Similarly, the vast majority of viewing still takes place in standard-definition though penetration of high-definition displays and receivers is increasing. High-definition broadcasts are available on satellite services: Freesat,

Freesat from Sky Freesat from Sky (FsfS) was a British satellite television service from Sky UK. It offered over 240 free-to-air (FTA) channels in its EPG. This is a greater number than its competitors, Freesat, which has 200+, and Freeview, which has 70+. It ...

and

; cable services

Smallworld Cable Smallworld Fibre (previously Smallworld Cable, Wightcable North and OMNE) was a British telecommunications company based in Irvine, North Ayrshire. The coverage area was Irvine, Dreghorn, Troon, and Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland, and Carl ...

and Virgin TV and terrestrial

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 ...

HD.

Broadcasters

BBC

The

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

initially operated BBC HD on a trial basis on

and

Telewest Telewest (previously Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications) was a cable internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also o ...

(now

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

). Following full approval by the BBC Trust, the service expanded its hours to start at 15:00 and finish at midnight. On 28 May 2010, the BBC announced that they would launch a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

of BBC One in HD to accompany the BBC HD channel, which aimed to show the best BBC programming in high-definition, whereas the new channel was aimed purely at being a HD version of BBC One. BBC One HD launched at 19:00 on 3 November 2010. In July 2011, rumours began to surface about BBC HD being replaced by BBC Two HD. These were originally rejected, but on 6 October 2011 it was confirmed that the BBC plan to replace BBC HD with a single version of BBC Two HD in 2013. BBC Two HD replaced BBC HD on 26 March 2013. Meanwhile, BBC One HD received nations variations for Northern Ireland on 24 October 2012, Scotland on 14 January 2013 and Wales on 29 January 2013. For the duration of the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, the BBC operated 24 high-definition channels dedicated to the Olympics on Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media, as well as one channel on Freeview. On 13 June 2013, the BBC temporarily launched a high-definition red button stream on the Freesat, Freeview and Virgin Media EPGs. A commercial agreement for carriage on Sky wasn't reached and the channel was removed from satellite completely on 18 June, with the BBC claiming that it was for "technical reasons". The channel returned to satellite on 24 June after technical work was carried out on Sky's adaptation hub. On 16 July 2013, the BBC announced they would be launching five new HD channels in early 2014. The proposed channels consist of HD simulcasts of BBC Three,

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

, CBeebies and

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

. The channels would be broadcast on digital terrestrial television and satellite, as well as being offered to cable and IPTV operators.

ITV

The

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

network started broadcasting a trial service on

's digital cable television platform, as well as on the digital terrestrial television trial in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

during the

2006 Football World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. The service ceased after this period, but a new HD service began to be made available with the launch of Freesat, on 7 June 2008, where selected programmes were offered in HD format, and accessed by the red button on Freesat receivers. ITV plc intended to spend £10m during 2008 on supporting ITV HD. This occasional feed was intended for Freesat viewers, and was not listed in the Sky EPG. However, ITV HD could be tuned in manually on Sky HD boxes via the "other channels" section from the "services" menu. On 12 March 2010, ITV plc announced its intention to launch a full-time ITV1 HD service, available on Freeview, Freesat, Virgin Media, and Sky. The service launched on 2 April at 06:00. STV followed with STV HD on 2 April 2010, available on Freeview, Virgin Media and free-to-air satellite, while UTV launched UTV HD on Virgin Media on 5 October 2010. ITV1 HD was renamed ITV HD on 14 January 2013.

ITV2 HD ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

launched on 7 October 2010, followed by ITV3 HD and ITV4 HD on 15 November 2010. These three channels are available, from November 2022, on Freesat and as part of Sky and Virgin Media's subscription packages. ITV Encore HD later followed, although it is only available on Sky's subscription package.

Channel 4

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

launched its HD service on digital satellite on 10 December 2007. The channel was encrypted on satellite, available with a free-to-view viewing card but as of April 2011 it is available free-to-air on Freesat. The channel is also available on

and

. On 14 December 2009, Channel 4 launched a second HD channel to Sky customers, E4 HD. The channel is a simulcast of E4, with selected programming in HD. Unlike its standard definition counterpart, E4 HD is a subscription channel, part of Sky's HD pack. Virgin Media subsequently also announced that it was to carry E4 HD, as well as a further new HD channel,

Film4 HD Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...

, which would be available exclusively on cable at launch. For the duration of the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

, Channel 4 operated three high-definition channels dedicated to the Paralympics on Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media, as well as one channel on Freeview. On 4 February 2013, More4 HD launched on Sky, with Film4 HD being added on 2 September. In July 2014, Channel 4 +1 HD and 4seven HD services became available on the Freeview HD platform. Channel 4's carriage agreements with Sky TV and Virgin Media mean that Film4 HD and E4 HD are exclusive to those providers for the immediate future. However, they may appear on Freeview once those agreements laps

On 20 February 2018, Freesat announced that Channel 4HD and On Demand service ALL4 would leave the platform. Channel 4 cited rising EPG costs. S4C HD and Channel 5 HD, however, are still broadcasting on Freesat. Channel 4 HD, Channel 4+1 HD and 4 Seven HD continue to broadcast on Freeview, and Freeview Play retains ALL4.

S4C

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

launched an HD service, S4C Clirlun, on 30 April 2010. The service was exclusive to Freeview in Wales and available instead of Channel 4 HD. However, it was announced on 11 July 2012 that, as part of cost-saving measures designed to deal with the impact of cuts to S4C's public funding, Clirlun would close at the end of the year. The channel closed at on 1 December 2012, allowing Channel 4 HD to begin broadcasting in Wales on Freeview from 2 December 2012. It was announced on 20 May 2016 that S4C would relaunch a high-definition service S4C HD on Freesat and Sky in Wales and across the UK from 7 June onwards.

Channel 5

Channel 5 was awarded a licence for HD transmissions on Freeview from 2010, but due to Channel 5 being unable to resolve certain key criteria, the capacity was handed back to the

. Five HD launched on Sky and Virgin Media platforms on 13 July 2010. The channel is free-to-view on satellite. In 2011, Channel 5 HD was the sole applicant for a fifth high-definition channel slot on Freeview, with the aim of launching in spring or early summer 2012. On 15 December 2011, Channel 5 dropped its bid to take the fifth slot, after being unable to resolve "issues of commercial importance". However, Channel 5 HD began broadcasting in HD on both Freesat and Freeview, after the BBC removed BBC Three / BBC iii from all digital TV platforms (apart from its on-line

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

service).

UKTV

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...

owns seven HD channels, under the names of Eden HD, Good Food HD, Dave HD, W HD, Alibi HD, Gold HD and Yesterday HD. The channels broadcast on Sky and Virgin Media.

Sky UK

began HD transmissions of several channels in May 2006.

Platforms

Terrestrial

Freeview

In March 2009, the

Digital TV Group The DTG (Digital TV Group) is the association for British digital television broadcasters and annually publish and maintain the technical specifications for digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the United Kingdom, which is known as the D-Boo ...

published the technical specification for high definition services on digital terrestrial television (DTT), contributing to the launch of three HD channels on the

platform in early 2010. The technical launch of Freeview HD took place on 3 December 2009, when the service began broadcasting on UHF channel 54 from the

Winter Hill transmitting station The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site on Winter Hill, at the southern boundary of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire and above Bolton. It is owned and operated by Arqiva. Height The original mast at ...

in Chorley, Lancashire, and on UHF channel 31 from the Crystal Palace transmitting station in Bromley, Greater London. These broadcasts form the

Freeview HD Freeview is the United Kingdom's sole digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by Digital UK Ltd and DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. It was launched on 30 October 2002, taki ...

service which requires new reception equipment, available since the consumer launch in early 2010. The service was rolled out on a region by region basis across the UK in accordance with the digital switchover programme. An advanced retrofit programme has been introduced to bring Freeview HD coverage to major cities such as London and Birmingham before they switch to digital television. The broadcasts make use of a single multiplex currently allowing four channels,

BBC One HD BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, BBC Two HD, ITV HD/

STV HD STV is a Scottish free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the STV Group. It is made up of the Central Scotland and Northern Scotland Channel 3 public broadcaster licences, formerly known as Scottish Television (n ...

/ UTV HD and

Channel 4 HD 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 i ...

. A fifth slot is available, with Channel 5 withdrawing from the opportunity to broadcast on it on two separate occasions, it has however been temporarily used by both the BBC and Channel 4. Between 22 and 23 March 2011, an encoder software change allowed the Freeview version of BBC HD to automatically detect progressive material and change encoding mode appropriately, meaning the channel could switch to 1080p25. This was extended to all of the other Freeview HD channels in October 2011. In November 2012, Ofcom backed a proposal from Arqiva, the BBC and Channel 4 to introduce two temporary multiplexes in the 600 MHz spectrum. The proposal would allow for up to ten HD channels, encouraging the take-up of Freeview HD equipment. On 6 February 2013, Ofcom agreed to the proposals, offering multiplexe licenses to operate until 2026, with a minimum term running until 31 December 2018. Channel 4+1HD and 4Seven HD are also available on Freeview.

Satellite

Sky

=Subscription

= Sky has been carrying HD channels since May 2006. it has over sixty HD channels, a mix of basic and premium subscription, free-to-air and free-to-view services. HD broadcasts are received using the

Sky+ HD Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...

service or a

Sky HD Sky+ HD was the brand name of the HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky to be viewed. For the first two years after launch, the service was branded Sky H ...

receiver. A selection of HD push-video on demand content is also available through

Sky Anytime On Demand was the brand name of a range of video on demand services from Sky UK designed to compete with rival companies such as Virgin TV or BT TV as well as internet television services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. On Demand, prev ...

on Sky+ HD receivers.

=Free-to-view (Freesat from Sky)

= Free-to-air and free-to-view channels may also be viewed through

Channel 5 HD Channel 5 is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel launched in 1997. It is the fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom and is owned by Channel 5 Broadcast ...

was available free-to-view on the service until October 2013, when the channel became subscription only.

Freesat

Freesat launched on 6 May 2008. It provides a subscription-free alternative to Sky and includes support for HD with a selection of HD channels available via a Freesat HD box. Freesat is a

not-for-profit company A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

formed by the BBC and

, marketing itself as being completely free from subscription charges or contracts, although viewers of course are still obliged to pay the television licence, and must purchase a suitable satellite receiver and have a satellite dish installed (if they do not already have one) to receive the service. Freesat receivers are available in both standard definition and high definition versions. HD channels are available only when the satellite receiver is capable of supporting it.

Free-to-air

BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, BBC Four HD, CBBC HD, CBeebies HD, BBC News HD, Channel 4 HD, ITV 1 HD, ITV 2 HD, ITV 3 HD, ITV 4 HD, STV HD, UTV HD, Smithsonian HD, and NHK World HD are available unencrypted and without subscription on digital satellite, and may be received by anybody with suitable equipment – a high-definition satellite receiver and a satellite dish. Channel 4 HD was pulled from Freesat on 22 February 2018 along with its ALL4 on demand service. These are still available on Freeview however.

Cable

Virgin Media

Virgin TV's V+ cable service was the first HD service in the UK when it was launched by

as the TVDrive on 1 December 2005. From launch it carried two channels but after the completion of ITV's HD trial, it only carried the BBC HD channel, alongside on demand content from several broadcasters. However, from 2009 the number of HD channels steadily increased, which stands at over thirty HD channels. On 16 March 2010, Virgin announced that from 22 March they would offer a V HD Box, with no additional monthly subscription fee. They were joined by TiVo from December 2010.

Smallworld Cable

began offering a selection of HD channels in April 2011 through their Smallworld HD+ service.

Other

BT Vision BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers. ...

, a hybrid digital terrestrial and IPTV service, augments standard definition broadcast channels with on-demand pay-per-view high-definition programmes, which the viewer downloads to the V-box set-top-box then watches when the download is complete. The HD service launched in February 2009.HD TV comes to BT Vision — starting with 11 stunning BBC documentaries
Similarly,

TalkTalk TV TalkTalk TV is a UK-based consumer television and video on demand service, operated by the TalkTalk Group that originally launched in 2000. In September 2012, the current TalkTalk TV was launched in partnership with YouView. Its television an ...

carries pay-per-view high-definition programmes, which the viewer downloads to the TalkTalk+ set-top-box then watches when the download is complete. The first HD content was added on 7 December 2009.

References

{{High-definition television broadcasting High-definition television

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Television in the United Kingdom Digital television in the United Kingdom