I spent yesterday at the Oxford Media Convention. This was the third or fourth year I had attended and — except for Andy Duncan’s embarrassing beg-a-thon — it’s generally a good overview of law and policy in the U.K. media sector.

I thought the most interesting part of the day was the panel discussion on Ofcom’s digital dividend review (DDR). DDR is the technical and regulatory decision-making process where the U.K. decides what to do with reclaimed analogue television spectrum as the country shifts to digital television. It sounds boring and technical - it is - but that’s part of the resulting problem.

Basically, Ofcom’s decision took an otherwise principled and useful approach. Acknowledging the limits of regulatory certainty and the risks of intervention, Ofcom decided against allocating the reclaimed spectrum to a particular use, instead arguing that the spectrum should be allocated in a flexible manner, and likely auctioned. As for HD, Ofcom said:

High definition television, by contrast, was not identified in our research as a major source of broader value to society. A bigger choice of channels was rated more highly, for both citizen and consumer interests, and HD was seen mainly as a premium consumer product, similar to mobile television.

But later Ofcom writes:

There was a largely positive reaction to the HD trial. Triallists reported a picture quality that exceeded expectations, that they ‘couldn’t bear the thought’ of going back to standard definition and that they thought it was important that HD be available on the Freeview platform.

The problem? Freeview is the digital television platform of choice for about 7 million households. And sales of high definiton or ‘HD-ready’ television sets and creation of HD programming is growing as well. But Ofcom’s decision, if it stands, will likely have the practical result of no HD programming being carried on Freeview (or perhaps it may make the provision of HD challenging, but not impossible). But, generally speaking, people will only be able to watch HD programming on cable or satellite. Click here to send Ofcom a comment on the DDR issues.
This may become a political problem:

* A high-def divide means that licence-fee funded programming won’t be delivered equally to all of the U.K. The Communications Act requires Ofcom to ‘maintain and strengthen’ Public Service Broadcasting - not allowing (or making it more difficult for) the BBC to broadcast in high-def to 7 million households will certainly undercut that important goal.

* People that confused the concept of digital switchover with high-def will feel misled. I can imagine alot of sales people in the high street shops are telling consumers they need HD-ready sets to be ready for switchover. People will then wonder why the government was promoting Freeview, when the platform doesn’t allow people to take advantage of perhaps the most important reason for going digital.
At the Oxford Media Convention, David Levy of the BBC gave a very elegant and informed critique of Ofcom’s approach. DTI representatives in the room also made it clear that the government had the power to over-rule Ofcom and was keeping an open mind. So, this might be an interesting test of what happens when notions of evidence and ‘better regulation’ meet political and marketplace realities.

What do you think?