Freeview is the name for the collection of free-to-air services on the Digital Terrestrial Television platform in the United Kingdom. The service was launched at 5am on 30 October 2002 and is jointly operated by its five equal shareholders – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and transmitter operator Arqiva. This article documents the history of the Freeview service, from its inception up to the present.
2002
Following the collapse of ITV Digital, the Independent Television Commission re-advertised the licenses for the three multiplexes (MUX B, C and D) that had been used by ITV Digital. On 16 August 2002 the licenses were granted to members of the Freeview consortium, with BBC getting multiplex B and Crown Castle getting multiplexes C and D.
Although all pay channels had been closed down on ITV Digital, many free-to-air channels continued broadcasting, including the five analogue channels, the digital BBC channels, ITV2, the ITN News Channel, S4C2, TV Travel Shop and QVC.
Freeview launched on 30 October 2002 at 5am. Sky Travel, UK History, Sky News, Sky Sports News, The Hits and TMF were available on the launch, however many channels originally available have since been removed. BBC Four and the interactive BBC streams were moved to multiplex B. Under the initial plans, the two multiplexes operated by Crown Castle would carry eight channels altogether.
2003
In February 2003 BBC Three replaced BBC Choice, which since February the previous year had no longer contained children's programming, as the job was fulfilled by the CBBC and CBeebies channels.
The seventh stream became shared by UK Bright Ideas and Ftn which launched in February 2003. The eighth stream was left unused until April 2004 when the shopping channel Ideal World launched on Freeview. There are now 13 streams carried by the two multiplexes, with Multiplex C carrying 5 streams, and Multiplex D carrying 8.
2004
Pay television returned to the terrestrial platform in March 2004 when Top Up TV launched. The BBC and Crown Castle multiplexes were at the time not allowed to broadcast pay channels, so the new service broadcast on multiplex A and Channel 4's half of multiplex 2. On June 14, 2004, Cartoon Network launched onto Freeview. The autumn of 2004 saw the launch of two new free-to-air entertainment channels; ABC1 in September and ITV3 in November. ITV3 was the replacement for Plus on platforms other than Freeview.
2005
In early 2005, two new channel streams became available on the two Crown Castle multiplexes. ITV and Channel 4 won one stream each. ITV used their channel to broadcast Men & Motors. Channel 4's entertainment channel E4 had up until this time been broadcast as part of the Top Up TV package, and at this time it was decided that E4 would be made free-to-air, as well as being available on Freeview along with E4 +1 which was launched at the same time in the newly acquired stream. They also launched a live stream of the Big Brother house, which was later replaced by quiz channel Quiz Call.
In the autumn of 2005 Channel 4 and ITV joined the Freeview consortium. They also launched two new channels, More4 and ITV4, respectively. Sky replaced Sky Travel with the broader entertainment channel Sky Three.
Another stream became available on the Crown Castle multiplexes. Channel 4 won the bidding for this stream, which reportedly reached £12 million per year. The space was initially used to broadcast More4 +1.
The ITV News Channel had seen its broadcasting hours reduced to daytime after the launch of ITV4. It stopped broadcasting on 23 December 2005 at 6pm and the space was taken over by CITV in March 2006.
Toonami was launched on Freeview on December 7, 2005.
2006
ITV Play was launched in April 2006, and Men & Motors was taken off Freeview to make way for this to happen. FilmFour ceased its subscription service in mid-2006. Also, at the same time, it launched on Freeview and changed its name on all platforms to Film4, and introduced commercials during films for the first time. It also reduced its broadcasting hours to 12:45 – 08:45 so National Lottery Extra and Gems TV could launch. On Freeview, it replaced More4 +1, although the space was briefly used for Big Brother coverage before it was launched on Freeview.
Five had bought a stake in the company behind the Top Up TV service, and in the autumn of 2006 it was restructured into a video on demand service. This made space for Five to launch two new channels in October, which were Five Life and Five US (now known as 5* and 5 USA respectively).