Editing Freeview (UK) (section)

====Copy protection====
In August 2009, the BBC wrote to Ofcom after third-party content owners asked the BBC to undertake measures to ensure that all Freeview HD boxes would include [[copy protection]] systems as required by the Digital TV Group's D-Book, which sets technical standards for digital terrestrial television in the UK.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a175535/bbc-wants-freeview-hd-copy-protection.html|title=BBC wants Freeview HD copy protection|website=Digital Spy|date=2 September 2009}}</ref> The BBC proposed to ensure compliance with copy-protection standards on the upgraded Freeview HD multiplex by compressing the service information (SI) data, which receivers need to understand the TV services in the data stream. To encourage boxes to adopt copy protection, the BBC made its own look-up tables and decompression algorithm, necessary for decoding the EPG data on high-definition channels, available without charge only to manufacturers who implement the copy-protection technology. This technology would control the way HD films and TV shows are copied onto, for example Blu-ray discs, and shared with others over the internet. No restrictions will be placed on standard-definition services. In a formal written response, Ofcom principal advisor Greg Bensberg said that wording of the licence would probably need to be changed to reflect the fact that this new arrangement is permitted. The BBC had suggested that as an alternative to the SI compression scheme, the Freeview HD multiplex may have to adopt encryption. Bensberg said that it would appear "inappropriate to encrypt public service broadcast content on DTT".

On 14 June 2010, Ofcom agreed to allow the BBC to limit the full availability of its own and other broadcasters' high definition (HD) Freeview services to receivers that control how HD content can be used.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2010/06/hd-on-freeview-5/|title=HD on Freeview|publisher=Ofcom|date=14 June 2010|access-date=14 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616034420/http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2010/06/hd-on-freeview-5/|archive-date=16 June 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Ofcom concluded that the decision to accept the BBC's request will deliver net benefits to licence-holders by ensuring they have access to the widest possible range of HD television content on DTT.