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This report was commissioned by the Trust as part of its programme of value for money reviews into the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, following discussions with the National Audit Office.

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ uses significant amounts of spectrum to transmit both analogue and digital terrestrial television and radio services across the UK. The report provides analysis of future challenges and opportunities in respect of spectrum efficiency and will assist the Trust and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ in making informed decisions about the use of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s spectrum in the future. The Deloitte review looked at how efficiently and effectively the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ uses spectrum in all areas, but its main focus was on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) or Freeview.

Jeremy Peat, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trustee, said:

"Freeview is now the most popular digital television platform and the Deloitte report gives significant credit for this to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and its original investment strategy of providing a robust signal and picture quality. Indeed, Freeview's success has led to increased demand for capacity as the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and other broadcasters develop aspirations for new services such as HD Television. It is right that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ now explores new options to ensure that spectrum capacity is used as efficiently as possible and it is already doing this. In its early years, value for money was achieved by making Freeview available to as many licence fee payers as possible and now, five years after its launch, new technologies provide new opportunities to deliver even more value."

In respect of DTT, the Deloitte report notes that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has so far prioritised encouraging consumer take up of Freeview by maximising the robustness of the signal and the picture quality. However, following the successful establishment of the platform and the recent growth in demand for spectrum, the report concludes that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ needs to reconsider the appropriate trade-off choices, and how the capacity can be used effectively for different competing service demands. It suggests that ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ management will need to be better prepared in the future to make more critical judgements around the use of capacity for individual services streams. This will require a more value-based process for making decisions relating to these capacity trade-offs.

The Deloitte report includes a response by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Executive Board, which has been endorsed by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust. The Executive outlines what plans are in place to make a number of technological improvements to increase the efficiency with which it uses spectrum, due to be implemented between 2008 and 2012. The Executive will also carry out consumer research on the picture quality of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ services on DTT as recommended by the report. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Executive is currently developing a framework to ensure a value-based approach to decisions on capacity trade-offs which will be presented to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust in February 2008. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is currently actively engaged with Ofcom on the latter's proposal for re-organising the DTT platform in order to accommodate HD television services within existing multiplex capacity.

Notes to editors

It is the responsibility of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust, under the Royal Charter, to ensure that value for money is achieved by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ through its spending of the licence fee. In order to fulfil this responsibility, the Trust commissions and publishes a series of independent value for money reviews each year in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General – the head of the NAO. The reviews are undertaken by the NAO or other external agencies, in this case Deloitte and Touch LLP.

The Trust has also today published another value for money report by the NAO on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s procurement.