Gov Consults on UK Plan for Terrestrial TV Switch Off and Broadband Support
The Government has today proposed to switch-off terrestrial TV signals in either 2034 or 2044 as part of a wider change to reflect the move to internet-based streaming, provided broadband coverage is ready to support the transition (they expect it to be). Support will also be provided to the UK homes that may struggle to afford broadband, possibly backed by a new subsidy scheme.
Over the past couple of decades there has been a significant shift in how we all access and view TV content. Traditional Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals are in decline and internet (IP)-based streaming platforms are on the rise (e.g. Netflix, Amazon, Sky Glass / Sky Stream, YouTube, Disney+, Freely and so forth).
The Public Service Broadcasters’ (i.e. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.) have recognised this shift and forecast it will be necessary to transition to streaming / IPTV solutions in the mid-2030s. Otherwise, they warn, it could become increasingly challenging for them to bear double costs from running multiple distribution platforms.
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At the same time Ofcom have been busy introducing new rules to help lay the groundwork for a more streaming centric future (here, here and here), such as by modernising the country’s broadcasting regulations, while also expanding them to cover IP-based video-on-demand (VoD) and streaming services.
Until today the UK Government had already committed to the future of DTT until 2034, but a question mark has continued to exist over how long the service could continue beyond this date.
Obstacles to the DTT Switch Off
One of the biggest challenges in making such a major shift stem from the fact that not everybody may be ready for it. According to a previous 2024 Government report on the future of TV distribution (here), come 2040 it’s forecast that some 5% of UK homes (1.5 million) will still rely on digital terrestrial television via the air waves.
Just to be clear. The 1.5 million figure reflects 0.4 million homes that will opt not to connect to broadband and 1.1 million homes that will have broadband, but which will not connect their TVs to use an internet TV service. “These viewers are more likely to identify as female and to live on their own. They are also more likely to live in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, be on low incomes and have a disability,” said the report.
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The same report predicted that “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) would reach at least 99.65% of homes by 2030 (at the end of 2025 it was around 98.5%), although such figures may be open to debate given the recent slowdown in some deployments of even faster broadband networks.
The above is relevant because most services currently require a download speed of c.5-6Mbps to support a single HD video stream (c.15-30Mbps for UltraHD / 4K), but this figure will actually shrink as more platforms adopt increasingly sophisticated compression and codecs. But of course, home users also need their connections for other tasks, hence why speeds of 30Mbps+ are considered somewhat of a basic requirement for any transition away from DTT.
The government’s proposals
The UK government has today published a new Green Paper on their proposed approach to the future of TV distribution in the UK – ‘Watch this Space: A new strategic direction for UK media‘, which proposes a series of changes and options for how the process should be tackled.
Key Proposals of the Green Paper
➤ The government “sees a strong case” for a managed transition to internet-based TV services by 2034, not least because it expects the necessary broadband connectivity “to be in place to support a transition in 2034” and views this date as being able to “unlock a range of strategic, economic and consumer benefits“.
However, it also recognises the “challenges involved” and is consulting on an alternative option too, which would be a transition by 2044 – offering a 10-year extension to the DTT platform. This would involve maintaining a hybrid DTT/IPTV model until 2044, while preserving universal free-to-air access for households that are slower to adopt broadband, including older and more vulnerable viewers.
The 2044 model would overall “allow for a gradual, lower-risk transition“, not least because it says “near-universal access to IPTV is not anticipated until the early 2040s” (i.e. when 30Mbps+ should be universal).
➤ The government will reform the UK’s Public Service Media (PSM) system to ensure it delivers for the public and gives the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, STV, and S4C more flexibility to attract audiences online. For example, social media companies and video sharing platforms will be required to make sure that news content from PSMs and “other trustworthy providers” is prominent and easy to find on their platforms (i.e. being more likely to be at the top of people’s social media feeds when they search for news).
Changes are being considered to make the system more flexible – this could mean that other broadcasters and YouTube channels could similarly be designated as PSM providers in the future.
➤ On-demand rights for major sporting events to be added to the free-to-air ‘Listed Events Regime‘ (currently this only covers the rights required to show events live), which aims to protect free access for fans to the World Cup, Wimbledon, Olympics and other major sporting events (i.e. stopping them being put behind a paywall). “Bringing on-demand rights in scope of the regime will make sure these sporting moments continue to be provided for free in the future by PSM on digital and online platforms – rather than just traditional TV channels,” said the government.
➤ Options for improving media literacy are also being considered to make sure that people of all ages have the skills they need to critically think about the content they are consuming online and on social media. The government is exploring the possibility of introducing a new duty on PSM providers to deliver and report on media literacy activity, allowing best practice to be shared more widely, with the aim of building on work already being done under the Media Literacy Action Plan.
➤ The government will work with industry and audience groups on a support programme to help transition their viewing to IPTV services and “make the most of the additional benefits this provides“. This package will depend on industry and a strong ecosystem working together to develop and deliver it: PSM providers, platform operators, telecoms providers, manufacturers and retailers, charities and local delivery partners, each playing their part.
Some of the options being considered for this are low-cost or subsidised broadband for people receiving benefits or on low incomes; as well as low-cost or discounted internet capable TV sets for people on low incomes; and distributing simple / affordable streaming devices that connect older TVs sets to the internet with no ongoing fees.
The government also seeks views on how TV and streaming platforms can develop “services and systems that feel the same as digital terrestrial television so they are easy to use for people with limited digital skills“. This includes straightforward setup, direct access to live channels on start-up, and intuitive navigation via remote controls and electronic programme guides, alongside reliable provision of accessibility features such as subtitles, audio description, and sign language.
The Media Green Paper’s public consultation starts today (23rd June 2026) and will run for 10 weeks until 31st August 2026.
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Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, said:
“It is vital that we make sure that people have better access to trusted and accurate news and that our regulated public service media is seen and heard in the fierce battle against mis and disinformation.
As the media landscape moves further and further online away from traditional broadcasting we must act so that our world-leading TV sector continues to thrive and top quality UK content keeps being produced.
TV remains at the heart of our society. It is key to supporting social cohesion and is a cornerstone of our democracy, which is why, as the technology underpinning it changes, we are making sure it is protected for generations to come.”
The full report goes into lots more detail, although the government also makes clear that it “does not see a further extension of DTT beyond 2044 as either economically sustainable or desirable“, while the preferred approach seems to be for a transition to take place in time for 2034 – when they expect the country to already have the right broadband connectivity ready (this assumes Project Gigabit will hit their 2032 target of c.99% coverage).
However, the key focus will clearly be on that small group of homes who have either refused (or been unable) to upgrade their broadband to cope with internet-connected TV streaming, or those who continue to use a traditional TV service for other reasons (income, disability, choice etc.). If the consultation ultimately concludes that this is a problem that can be resolved by 2034 with minimal support, then that’s the direction we can expect.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I spoke about this with an industry insider late last year. His view was that the government would consider reducing the number of multiplexes from the current six in most locations to one. This would save on transmission costs. The one multiplex. Using current technology, this would carry 8 to 12 standard definition (SD) channels or 3 to 4 high definition (HD) channels. This would be sufficient to carry a basic free to air service. There would be no justification in his view to increase that. That would run from the end of the current licences for, say, 5 years to allow for a changeover to full switch off.
So BBC1, 2, 3, 4 in HD only. Shut up and take my money for tv license fee!
BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 just like, umm, when was it?
A one mux digital nightlight service makes sense, but must have a “nudge” built in.
SD only, “basic 5” plus scots/welsh/irish and community channel.
Make it “license free” (which will extend it for longer) use digital fundraising/enforcement to pay for BBC via streaming. Maybe a “tax” on all streaming to pay for key BBC services (national/local radio and ldrs, news, weather, national events) and have a separate opt in streaming sub for expanded BBC service (entertainment and extra channels)
I would guess that will be the probable outcome, shutdown the commercial multiplexes and just leave the basic Public Service Channels. As was done before top slice the frequencies down to Group A (Ch21-34) from the existing Group K (Ch21 – 48) and do the switch off by attrition rather than an outright shutdown.
This would reduce some of the operating costs but the fixed costs are well… fixed. Those costs would be re-distributed to the remaining services that share the masts.
This is part of the reason why AM radio is finally going, as the sites that broadcast it typically don’t do much else and Arqiva/Babcock have been going around with the begging bowl.
Satellite would be a better way to handle this. Although the likes of Sky and the BBC have not extended their contracts past 2029, it seems likely that some form of satellite service is going to continue and the cost of doing so is a fraction of maintaining the terrestrial transmission network, especially the thousands of relay sites.
Forcing viewers on terrestrial to satellite for a final few years is wasted change.
Centrally fund a single mux service for “community cohesion” reasons but then use the tv to nudge the heck of the viewers to get broadband. Even on BBC.
Maybe offer a free basic streaming box (white label the cheapest Roku would be my recommendation, RRP £20). Or develop a combined 4G/5G connected streamer box (multinetwork SIM) for modest price for those who can’t get good enough broadband any other way.
Time to call END the tv license!
Hear! Hear!
But, first, can people learn the difference between ‘licence’ as a noun, and ‘license’ the verb?
Getting a bit fed up with the constant lazy Americanisms and people who can’t even speak their own language well.
Nearly 20 years left for DTT seems excessive, especially when everyone moans all the time about funding the BBC.
2034 is enough time for people to get broadband installed if they want TV.
The quicker Freely is made into an App for all these fire sticks and other streamers the better.
I looked at the green paper on the .gov website. It appears as a single page (but if you chose to print to pdf it is actually 142 A4 pages long!). There are survey questions proposed which presumably are those in the survey starting you report today but neither you nor the govt website has a link to the survey. Seems the classic way to ensure minimal interaction from real normal people which always seems to be the case when a government survey is mentioned; every obstacle is placed in the path of the interested member of the public. The ISPREVIEW summary of the 142 pages is really good though. After the survey closes I would just love to know how many real members of the public actually found and completed the survey; maybe ISPreview could find out and let us know.
Well, they saw what happened when the public was allowed to comment on the closure of all railway ticket offices!
The article links directly to the single page HTML version of the consultation document. The main home page for the consultation is at the link below which includes details on how to respond.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/watch-this-space-a-new-strategic-direction-for-uk-media-green-paper-and-public-consultation
If they do switch it off there should be an equivalent “free to air” service online which is to say no account required and no DRM.
Good luck with that, ITV already forces people to sign up for ITVX if they want to watch ITV on Freely.
More data grabbing.
If Freely is supposed to be a replacement for Freeview, then no account should be needed for any channels.
I know what others will say, well it allows easy access to catch up and streaming services, but then it should be up to people, not forced.
That is the problem these days, accounts for this, accounts for that. They all want data.
the main problem is making cheap or free broadband available for those that don’t want broadband, but will need it to watch TV
not everyone has the pleasure of an efficient cheap broadband service, such as in remove regions, on the Isles (particularly Scotland) or where ISP providers dont want to install lines (such as hill farms, cul-de-sacs, small villages). And what happens when there is a Broadband cable dis-connection, especially if Mr Putin cuts undersea cables to The Hebrides, or Orkney, which was dis-connected to a few weeks recently.
Privatisation of transmission infrastructure in the 1990s turned what could have been a self supporting public asset into an ongoing cost for the broadcasters. We should retain the choice to opt out of broadband, as relying entirely on IPTV adds significant annual expenses (broadband costs + the TV licence) and complexity. Maintaining at least one or two multiplexes for SD/HD simulcast of main public service channels would provide a sensible and resilient option.
Who’s going to pay to maintain the transmission network against a dwindling user base? When the BBC is facing pressures to make cuts and its commercial competitors are facing a fall in ad revenue, there’s a strong argument that they can’t keep this going for much longer.
It’s the same argument when people want to keep bank branches open, copper telephone lines, or a mandate for businesses to take cash. They want it preserved but never want to pay for the extra overheads themselves, they want everyone else who has changed and adapted to fund it too.
Which means keeping hundreds of transmitter sites.
Most of these masts sites also host FM, DAB & 4G/5G antennas so unless these services are also being removed by 2034 I don’t see many sites closing.
I remember back in 1990 on an episode about satellite TV on the BBC Money Programme one of the contributors postulated that eventually things would need to swap round i.e. that phones would become mobile rather than fixed line & that TV would stop being provided over the airwaves & be delivered by fixed cable. It’s amazing how prophetic his prediction of 36 years ago was, even though it’s no doubt happening in a different way to what he envisaged.
I have filled out the Government Survey
I chose to do a few bits
I said to closedown DTT in 2034
Waste of time, they will still do what they want.
I think 2034 is too early.
Regardless of what happens, they’ll need to inform the public and with something that a large majority of the public are used to (not readers of a fairly niche subject website) about a potential switchover.
Arqiva hold the cards about how they can serve the public and it’s customers like the broadcasters effectively, AM is ONLY being switched off now and they’re still debating a roadmap for the FM switch off, problem is TV / radio is pretty frictionless for setup compared to broadband for the “normal” members of public (not readers here)
I reckon it’ll be a MUX reduction to 3 from 6 and some kind of service until it’s no longer needed – but it’s a wait and see moment.
The switch from six to three MUXes *is* Arquiva’s plan post-2034 to persuade the government to continue supporting DTT into the mid-2040s.
However, in parallel with that change there is also a probable/possible switch to DVB-T2 being mooted (and AFAICT not talked about much). So, most viewers with UK TVs with a built-in Freeview tuner bought before about 2014–2016 (and still working in 2034!) would likely need a new set-top box or mid-2020s TV to continue receiving DTT after 2034.
The demographic not wanting to be pushed over to IPTV are also the most likely to still be using their late 2000s/early 2010s TV sets (or set-top boxes) in 2034. Thus, maintaining a DTT experience beyond 2034 may not be a cost-free option for that demographic. Neither of my Panasonic TVs from around 2013/2014 support it (and I expect them to last well into the mid-2030s), but then I happily switch from DTT to IPTV and would not ‘miss’ DTT if it wasn’t there.
Grasp the nettle and switch off by 2034 I say.
Nobody has said if the Freely app will work on older smart TV,s. Looks like set top boxes again! What a mess.
And Samsung and LG – the market leaders show no sign of supporting it either.
New sets only and not all at the moment. There are hubs with Freely.
Possible to watch live TV on different apps, but a bit of a pain to do so, but no Freely needed.
When it’s all done and dusted I assume we will still be watching the same repeats in varying degrees of clarity including standard definition, gee I can’t wait.
Oh yeah, that is one of the reasons I gave up with linear TV and did not bother to renew the TV licence.
The trouble with Freely is it seems to be a UK only walled garden. Global TV manufacturers tend to build for global markets, or least regional markets (e.g. EU or North America). Producing specific models for a relatively small market such as the UK is not very attractive and it’s noticeable that market leaders Samsung and LG have not announced plans to make Freely sets
True, but the changes needed should be in software only, so much like they do already with regards to catch up/streaming apps, Freeview etc the Freely feature would just be enabled on setup when you select UK as your location.
Whatever they do they need to ensure you can actually get a single in the same place. I went near the beach of a very built of town and there are a lot of little static caravans, beach huts and boats that have TVs. There was almost no signal, maybe a couple of kbps, there’s no way you could stream video. No one is going to want to buy multiple spacex satellite dishes.
My problem is not all channels have catchup. So I need the ability to record and keep. Sky did have the ability to record to a Dvd hard drive recorder but that has now been discontinued.
Very handy for my brother-inlaw who runs a rural farm in Suffolk, The Farmhouse is 1/4 mile from the main road using Plusnet (copper) around 5MBs
He approached Openreach 5+ years ago and he was quoted in excess of £36k to mole-drain in Fibre, from the road cabinet, 150yds from the farm entrance to the house
To me, it’s sad that there won’t be communications broadcast in the air that can be freely received, by anybody, without needing to be a registered and working transmitter station (i.e. the two-way comms required for TCP/IP).
I suppose maybe we could get to a point where people can decrypt the downstream channel of a viewer, that is being transmitted through the air – if the mobile network or wifi security is broken – but that’s not the same as it just being there in the air like radio or traditional tv, is it.
I suppose as long as they keep radio going, we should be OK. Radio Ga Ga 🙂