UK broadcasters warn of damage to TV market from allocation of spectrum to mobile

A group of British broadcasters including BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have, in a new report warned that plans to allocate more radio spectrum to mobile phone operators could damage the television market, which provides almost £80 billion in revenue to the UK economy.

According to the report, commissioned by umbrella body Digital UK, television delivered more value per unit of spectrum than mobile broadband.

For digital terrestrial television, the average value per MHz worked out at £470 million, as against £190 million for mobile data, the report said.

Terrestrial television also supported 15,000 jobs and created healthy competition between platforms, while ensuring that viewers could access public service channels without subscription.

Also, mobile already had been allotted spectrum that was much more than what was allotted to television, after the digital switchover last year freed up capacity for 4G mobile broadband. The mobile industry now occupied 560 MHz, as against 256 MHz for TV.

Digital UK has urged the government to ensure that any further transfers of airwaves did not affect TV services, and that viewers did not suffer disruption or foot the bill for making the changes.

''Digital UK and its members are urging Government to ensure any further transfers of airwaves do not weaken Freeview and other terrestrial TV services, and that viewers should not suffer disruption or foot the bill for making the changes,'' Digital UK said in a statement.

The report comes at a time of increasing pressure on spectrum resources, thanks to the increasing demand for 4G services and mobile broadband. 

Over the past year, this had resulted in mobile regulator Ofcom taking up projects that would repurpose radio spectrum resources to deliver 4G. The regulator then set out plans for  rearranging the bands used for digital terrestrial TV to free up resources for mobile broadband use.

According to Jonathan Thompson, chief executive of Digital UK, the report shed new light on the value of DTT for viewers, the UK television sector and wider economy.

He added, with increasing demand for spectrum, it was critical that DTT remained a strong proposition with the same coverage and range of channels viewers enjoyed today.