BBC consortium wins ITV Digital licences

The BBC has won the three vacant digital terrestrial television licences left after the collapse of troubled broadcaster ITV Digital, the Independent Television Commission announced today.

The Corporation's bid with satellite broadcaster BSkyB and transmitter company Crown Castle beat a partnership of ITV and Channel 4 to win the licences.

Regulators had to choose from six bids after ITV Digital went into administration earlier this year.

The successful package is based on viewers paying for a set-top box to decode the signals received through a traditional aerial.

It would then be free to view and offer some 24 channels, including five news channels and three from BSkyB.

The award is key to driving the uptake of digital broadcasting to meet the Government's target of switching over completely from traditional analogue signals before 2010.

Chaos caused by the collapse of ITV Digital left plans for increasing the saturation of digital in disarray, but the ITC began a fast-track process to find new companies to step in.

A study commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport this week showed that more than 40 per cent of households now have digital, although figures were compiled before ITV Digital's demise.

BBC director general Greg Dyke has forecast that the BBC-BSkyB proposal will attract another five million homes in five to six years.

As well as satellite and terrestrial digital services, around three million people receive signals via cable.

The Government's target is to switch off analogue signals, the way most viewers currently get their picture, between 2006 and 2010. It will not do so until 95 per cent of homes have access to digital.

The ITC said it considered a range of factors in coming to its decision, including proposals for implementing and improving coverage and the ability to "establish and maintain the proposed service throughout the licence period".

The BBC-BSkyB-Crown Castle bid was considered best-suited to fulfilling the requirements and promoting digital terrestrial television (DTT) by marketing strategies.

Sir Robin Biggam, chairman of the ITC, said: "The Commission believes that the BBC-Crown Castle application is the most likely to ensure the viability of digital terrestrial television.

"It will target those viewers who have not been so far attracted by digital TV and will help facilitate the move towards digital switchover."