High Definition Television FAQ for the UK channels on Sky, Telewest and BBC
What high definition television (HDTV) is broadcast in the UK?
Sky has been switching customers on to HD Satellite broadcasts since May 2006. Demand for the Sky HD service
initially outstripped the supply of equipment but now the waiting list for installs is getting shorter.
Telewest is the other main provider of HD broadcasts in the UK. Their HD service started with video-on-demand (Teleport) with very limited programs but BBC HD (108) became available from Telewest in May. ITV HD (118) and Ch4 are expected to join their HD lineup in June.
The BBC has been running a "trial" HDTV channel since May 15th 2006. It is available on the terrestrial freeview service to a few hundered selected viewers in London. The BBC HD Service is also broadcast on Astra Satellite so owners of a Sky HD receiver are able to view it. BBC HD is also available on Telewest cable. The BBC plan to produce all programs in HD by 2010. They will introduce HD to their planned FreeSat service and would also like to make it available on their iMP service for downloading programs for viewing online. This is not expected until the end of 2006 at the earliest.
ITV, CH4 and CH5 will join the BBC for the terestrial television HD trials in London this summer. They will not be available via Satellite just yet, but ITV have joined up with Telewest to broadcast HD programs on cable.
The Belgium based channel EURO1080 has been transmitting HDTV by satellite since the beginning of 2004. It is possible to subscribe from the UK. They broadcast the Winter Olympics in HD, so they have some good content (if you like that sort of thing.)
Other channels are broadcasting HDTV in Europe including Premiere, Pro7 and Sat1 in Germany. In France TF1, M6 and TPS have announced plans to introduce HD content. Sky Italia is also on the list.
What is the roadmap for the HDTV Launch in the UK?
Jun 9 2004 Sky announce plans for HD launch in 2006
Jun 22 2005 Sky HD website appears
Aug 22 2005 Sky announce its initial HD channel lineup
Aug 26 2005 Consumer pre-registration for sky HD begins
Nov 8 2005 BBC announce plans for HD trials
Nov 28 2005 Sky announce that National Geographic HD will join channel lineup
Dec 2 2005 Microsoft launch the XBOX 360, the first commercial HD games console
Jan 17 2006 Sky announce that Discovery HD will join channel lineup
Feb 1 2006 Sky HD channels start to appear in the EPG for test broadcasts
Mar 10 2006 Telewest launch video-on-demand HD service
Mar 23 2006 BBC confirm plans to show World Cup and Wimbledon on Sky Satellite
Mar 24 2006 Sky announce prices and lauch dates
Mar 24 2006 Customers who pre-registered are allowed to place deposit for pre-orders
Apr 5 2006 pre-ordering ended
Apr 6 2006 First customers called to schedule installations
Apr 13 2006 ordering available to all Sky customers
May 15 2006 BBC HD enters the SKY EPG with promotion trailors and upscaled programs
May 22 2006 Official Sky HD launch date and first public Sky HD installations begin
May 24 2006 BBC HD available on Telewest
May 27 2006 First scheduled HD programs on BBC HD begin including Bleak House and Planet Earth
Jun 9 2006 BBC HD trial official launch date with first matches of World Cup
Jun 9 2006 ITV HD starts on Telewest with World Cup Football
Jun 25 2006 Blu-Ray players released
Nov 2006 HD DVD European launch
Nov 17 2006 Playstation 3 UK launch
Jun 9 2007 End of BBC HD trial
What channels are available on SKY HD?
Sky are broadcasting the following HD channels: Sky Movies 9 HD (311), Sky Movies 10 HD (312), Sky One HD (197), Artsworld HD (268), Sky Box Office HD (756+757) and Sky Sport HD (405). Also available through the sky service are National Geographic HD (543) and Discovery HD (525). BBC HD can be received with the Sky dish and is in the EPG (145). Other possibilities that have been mentioned for the near future are History Channel HD, Disney HD and MTV HD. There is also a Sky HD Retail Info Channel (848).
Telewest are offering on-demand programs from BBC Worldwide and they are feeding BBC HD on channel 108 and ITV HD on 118. Other channels will be available soon.
Why is the UK behind the US in introducing HDTV?
The US are a little ahead of us in introducing HDTV channels, but we are well ahead with digital and widescreen TV. In fact we have been watching TV at a resolution of 576 lines for over thirty years while the US has been on only 480 lines. Because of this the urgency of moving to High Definition has been less in the UK and Europe than in the US. They have therefore been able to leapfrog us to HDTV while introducing widescreen and digital TV at the same time. In doing so, most US broadcasters have started with MPEG-2 video compression which is less efficient than MPEG-4 but easier and cheaper to implement. Many European broadcasters such as BSkyB decided to wait for MPEG-4 decoder chips to be available and that has been the limiting factor that has held back the launch of HDTV in the UK.
What is needed to watch HD television in the UK?
A new set top box from Sky or a cable service is needed. There are upgraded subscriptions required at extra cost for most SKY channels. It is possible to watch the BBC in HD on Sky without the extra subscription. The only other essential is an "HD Ready" television or projector.
How much does HDTV cost?
The price quoted for Sky HD is £299 for the set-top box if you take a Sky package. There is also an installation fee of £60 and an additional subscription fee of £10 per month.
Telewest viewers require the TV Drive set-top-box and a subscription supplement of £10/month for premier package viewers and £15/month for others. There is no up-front equipment fee for TVDrive.
The price of the HDTV set itself ranges from about £500 to £5000. See our TV choice page for some comparisons.
Is it possible to watch BBC HD and other free channels without a Sky subscription or Sky box?
You can buy the Sky box without a Sky subscription from independent suppliers and you can still watch BBC HD, but it costs an extra £100. It is possible to receive HD channels such as the BBC on a different HD box provided the receiver supports the right standards including MPEG-4, DVBS-2 and the appropriate codec. The BBC transmissions are Free-To-Air so no decryption is needed. Before the BBC started transmissions we warned that "until the viability of this possibility has been confirmed it would be a risk to assume it is going to work". This turned out to be prophetic when it transpired that the BBC and Sky are using the older MPEG-4.2.0 standard instead of MPEG-4.2.2 which European receivers are built for. Humax have developed a software upgrade to fix the problem and it must be installed to watch BBC HD. Satellite recievers that should work if the problems can be resolved include the Humax HDCI2000 and the Pace DS810XE both of which cost about £299.
How many HDTV sets are there in the UK?
It has been estimated (by Murdoch) that there were 700,000 HDTV sets in the UK at the beginning of 2006 and there will be 2 million by the end of the year. Another market study by Continental Research concluded that between 800,000 and 1 million HDTV sets would be bought over the next year. In early May Sky announced that 40,000 Sky HD installs had already been pre-booked during April. This was a much better result than expected so the estimated number of HDTV sets by the end of the year was revised upwards to 2.7 million.
