Grade calls for change to DTT HD plan

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has called for a change to plans for the carriage of high definition channels on Freeview.

Ofcom plans to clear one of the existing digital multiplexes to carry HD services, possibly beginning late next year. The regulator intends for all the spectrum freed up by the switch-off of analogue signals to be auctioned.

However, many in the industry want part of the spectrum to be set aside for them to launch additional HD channels.

Grade backed this point of view at a BBC Voice of the Viewer and the Listener event last week, saying that Ofcom's current plan would result in an "own goal".

He added: "We have a long and most honourable tradition in the UK of ensuring that everyone has access to the same quality of broadcasting and to the main public service broadcasting channels.

"Indeed that is precisely what digital switchover seeks to achieve. Closing the door to HD on Freeview would undermine that principle."