Freeview is a collection of HDTV services from DTV Services, a television company in the UK. This service is owned by 5 shareholders, Arquiva, Sky, Channel 4, ITV, and BBC. Freeview was first launched in 2002 and has since then met with worldwide success. The original model has been copied in a variety of countries including Italy, France, New Zealand, and Australia.

If a user wants to receive the “free” TV services, they must have an analog TV receiver or a digital TV tuner. Analog receivers are quickly becoming obsolete since the start of the digital format switchover from 2010 to 2012. An aerial receiver is also required to view any TV broadcasting transmissions. If you currently have a TV service, you can probably access the Freeview channels if you have everything set up properly.

What makes this HDTV service so popular is that those channels can be received for free with no subscription fee. However, you will need a yearly license that is required for anyone who wants to watch broadcast TV in the UK. If you purchase television channel equipment, you will usually have to pay for the service as well.

A survey in 2010 showed that 77% of the population in the UK has the ability to receive full services from Freeview. As the channels continue to switch to digital, even more households will be able to access this service. Some companies have estimated that over 90% of the population will be able to use this service in 2012, once the channels have completely moved over to digital. There is a full package of sixty channels that are completely free to view, covering a variety of subjects and age levels.

In 2009, the service had to undergo a massive upgrade. As a result, over 18 million households were required to retune their equipment to match the new settings. This led to thousands of complaints from customers who had lost their channels due to the equipment retuning. Because there were so many users logging in complaints, the website actually crashed and their calling center was temporarily closed down.

The major change in 2009 was actually an update to the NIT. Although this update was more efficient, many TV receivers were not able to accommodate the new settings. Many consumers lost permanent access to both ITV4 and ITV3. There were updates available to troubleshoot the problem on incompatible receivers, but the majority of users were not aware of this. Thankfully, this HDTV service has now returned to normal and it continues to be accessed by millions of households.

Russell Strider -
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