BBC high definition television channel Public Value Test (PDF)

Contained within this PDF document are some interesting facts about the planned future of the BBC's HD TV service, and in particular relating to the BBC's short term plans to provide a BBC HD service via DTT (Freeview) by switching off BBC Four, BBC Parliament and some of the interactive services between 2am and 6am each morning.

To quote: "The four-hour overnight schedule would be offered ahead of digital switchover and possibly after switchover if insufficient spectrum capacity were available during the transmission hours of the nine-hour schedule."

This means that the BBC could start broadcasting four hours of HD content nationally each morning on digital terrestrial TV (Freeview) as soon as the public value test is complete (November 2007) and Ofcom's technical code/BBC service licence has been changed. So if you're planning to buy an expensive Freeview PVR box soon it could be out of date in less than a year!

The statement relating to the full BBC HD channel service being carried on DTT is suitably vague, as might be expected, but if the BBC is given space for a full HD service then it's perhaps inevitable that its public service/commercial companions (ITV, C4, Five) will also want space as well, though ITV could switch off its "+1" services to free up some spare capacity.

Whatever the final outcome, it looks as if we will be getting some form of terrestrial HD service from the BBC much sooner than the final completion of the digital switchover in 2012. This is despite the policies of a government whose primary aim seems to be to make money as opposed to realising the true value of public services.