DTG Summit – London: Freeview managing director Ilse Howling has given details of the advertising campaign that will support the launch of HD services on the terrestrial platform. £6 million will be spent between Easter and the start of the World Cup at the beginning of June under the tagline “Buy today, watch today, free forever”. Howling said the campaign would be unified from the TV advertising through to the packaging of the box and, for the first time, the Freeview logo on the EPG. She added that Channel 4 HD would join the current line-up of BBC HD and ITV1 HD “before Easter”.
Howling gave further backing to online TV services including the BBC-supported Canvas. She said this represented between two to three million Freeview homes, but there would be many more that would be content with just the Freeview offer. “We will start to enable people to explore online and catch-up alongside HDTV, but the Freeview offer will stand against what’s to come for many years”.
The total value of Freeview sales to date represents over £2 billion.
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