The House of Lords Communications committee has proposed that broadcasting be moved away from terrestrial delivery and adopt IPTV as its primary means of distribution.
Broadband for all – an alternative vision also questions the current government strategy to rollout superfast broadband across the country, suggesting the nation’s interests might be better served by first ensuring universal access.
The report says the strongest driver of consumers moving from basic to enhanced broadband would be IPTV service.
“It is likely that IPTV services will become ever more widespread, and eventually the case for transferring the carriage of broadcast content, including public service broadcasting, from spectrum to the internet altogether will become overwhelming.”
The report recommends Government, Ofcom and the industry begin to consider the desirability of the transfer of terrestrial broadcast content from spectrum to the internet and the consequent switching off of broadcast transmission over spectrum and the cosequences that might arise.
Although the committee does not support a move at present it offers the belief that broadcast media will increasingly be delivered over the internet. If the PSB channels were to move the Lords suggests the case for a switch in systems would become even more compelling.
