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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

BBC – DTT Mega Contract Placed

The BBC have placed a £1.8bn contract with Arqiva for the “design, deployment, and operation of its new high-power digital terrestrial television (DTT) network” The contract also contains a few add-ons for DAB radio.

Whilst the headline figure looks big the contract length stretches to 2031, so the costs will be well under £100m/year which I think from looking at the BBC Accounts is cheaper than the Transmission costs for the soon to be decommissioned Analogue Network. I’m hoping for a “digital dividend” rebate on my BBC license fee, but I suspect I’ll be waiting a lot longer than 2031.

Arquiva have an excellent website which details the Digital Switch Over project. However, it has a long way to go to beat “The Transmission Gallery” which is heaven on the web for the UK Wireless Anorak Army. As a self-confessed member of this army: my local transmitter is Emley Moor which has a fascinating history full documented on the website.