Ed Richards gave an interesting speech yesterday. The full text is here. For someone like me who is not very technical when it comes to the Digital Dividend Review (DDR), the most interesting nugget to come from the speech is this:

At the technical level, there is much less difference than has been rumoured between Ofcom and the broadcasters about what is technically feasible as a result of adopting new coding and transmission standards.

The best advice that we have is that Freeview could get up to four universal coverage high definition terrestrial channels from 2012, with the possibility of a more limited set of services being available in some parts of the country from as early as 2009-10, just by using the existing spectrum.

This is a prize well worth aiming for. It’s in the interests of broadcasters, in the interests of viewers and in the interests of competition. So we will do everything we can to make it happen.

But four is not enough, right? It’s not exactly a great prize to think that in 2012 there will only be 4 HD channels on Freeview. In fact, that’s under-serving the public by a wide margin if you consider that by that time, nearly everyone will have an HD television and want to receive all their programming in HD. I cannot remember the consultation response, but that’s exactly the point someone made to Ofcom in the DDR consultation. HD won’t be regarded as HD in the future — it will simply be the television quality everyone expects at all times.

It’s easy to sympathise with Ofcom’s principled (market-based) approach in the abstract. But the real challenge for the regulator is what steps can it take now to ensure that in five years time the DTT platform is not considered some third-rate service. Based on what I have seen, it seems to me that Ofcom regard this as some type of principled skirmish with ‘HD for All’ but haven’t really appreciated the tidal wave of HD programming and devices heading our way.