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The BBC has called on the Government to insist on a single "set- top box" for all digital television services - satellite or terrestrial. Warning against a "hardware war" between competing digital television platforms, John Birt, director-general of the BBC, said: "We believe it essential - not just desirable - that viewers should be able to buy a single decoding box to receive all national digital services, however transmitted." He was speaking following publication of the BBC's response to a government consultation paper on digital terrestrial television.

The BBC suggests a new regime should be set up for licensing of set-top box technology, ensuring that industrial standards and the encryption technology used to scramble broadcasts be fairly and openly available to all manufacturers and broadcasters.