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Trust decision on HDTV Public Value Test
The BBC Trust has approved a proposal from the BBC Executive for a HDTV service.
What the Trust has decided
The Trust approved the BBC HD proposal, subject to conditions on 14 November 2007. Conditions attached to approval are summarised below. The Trust's full decision is detailed in the final conclusions.
- Final conclusions, HDTV, PDF (143KB)
- Final conclusions, HDTV, text only (53.6KB)
Satellite and cable
- BBC HD should launch on Sky and cable as soon as possible.
- The channel should launch on Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) Freesat from the launch of that platform.
Freeview
- The full BBC HD channel should be provided on Freeview as soon as possible, subject to a review of options in 2008.
- No four-hour interim channel will be provided on Freeview before equipment integrating standards for the future provision of HDTV on DTT is available.
- Once such equipment is available, and if at that point such a service remains appropriate, approval is given for a four-hour, overnight interim channel.
BBC Parliament
- If services are withdrawn from Freeview, live proceedings of the House of Commons should take precedence over the HD channel if capacity is not available for both.
Supporting evidence to the final PVT decision
- Provisional conclusions: public responses, PDF (516KB)
- Provisional conclusions: public responses, text only (194KB)
- Provisional conclusions: organisation responses, PDF (247KB)
- Provisional conclusions: organisation responses, text only (84KB)
- Research into consumer attitudes to HD on Freeview, PDF (73.5KB)
- Research into consumer attitudes to HD on Freeview, text only (10.8KB)
Background to the Trust's decision
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 21 May 2007 | PVT commences. |
| 22 May 2007 | Joint Trust/Ofcom stakeholder briefing Public Value Assessment (PVA) and Market Impact Assessment (MIA) representations open. |
| 19 June 2007 | PVA and MIA representations close. |
| 18 Sept 2007 | Publication of PVA and MIA. |
| 25 Sept 2007 | Publication of Trust’s provisional conclusions Consultation on the Trust's provisional conclusions opens. |
| 23 Oct 2007 | Consultation on the Trust's provisional conclusions closes. |
| 19 Nov 2007 | Publication of the Trust's final decision. |
Service description
The service description was prepared by the BBC Trust Unit and Ofcom at the start of the PVT process. It specifies the scope of the HDTV PVT.
- HDTV service description, PDF (132KB)
- HDTV service description, text only (18.2KB)
HDTV PVT provisional conclusions
The Trust published its provisional conclusions on 25 September 2007.
Public Value Assessment (PVA) and Market Impact Assessment (MIA)
The Trust published the PVA of the proposed BBC HDTV channel and supporting evidence on 18 September 2007.
The Market Impact Assessment is available from Ofcom's website.
Further information on the BBC Executive's application is available at the HDTV supporting evidence page.