📋 Tender Overview
TV lovers can enjoy popular shows such as Love Island and emerging comedy on E4 and Dave for free into the next decade as ministers extend the licences to operate the platform used to broadcast Freeview.Ministers decide Freeview platform will be supported until at least 2034Public service and commercial broadcasters can continue to deliver content free-to-air to audiences across the UKChannels such as ITV 2 Dave E4 and Film 4 will continue to benefit from nearly 99 per cent UK availabilityThe government is extending the five national multiplex licences for the Digital Terrestrial Television DTT platform - better known as Freeview - until 2034. This will protect for the future the main way audiences currently enjoy a diverse range of digital TV channels for free.It will guarantee prime spectrum - the radio waves used for transmitting signal - for commercial public service broadcasters PSBs such as ITV Channel 4 and Channel 5 so they can reach the maximum number of viewers in the UK as they compete with the streaming giants in a changing media landscape.TV multiplexes are digital networks which allow many TV channels to be compressed and transmitted all at once over a single radio frequency. Freeview is hugely popular with UK audiences and is broadcast over a number of multiplexes carrying five or more TV channels radio stations text services and electronic programme guides.The DTT multiplexes guarantee that PSB content is free to air and widely accessible to consumers due to their nearly 99 per cent coverage of the UK. They have become vital for the UKs TV networks - allowing the PSBs to expand their offerings with a host of new channels such as ITV2 and E4.
