2010 World Cup to go HD in UK

News from the UK — The 2010 World Cup taking place in South Africa will be broadcast on the Freeview digital TV platform, offering free-of-charge HD broadcasts to residents. Starting in 2009, HD will be widely available via Freeview but will not be offered in all parts of the country until 2012.

Freeview, owned by DTV Services, is an operator of free over-the-air terrestrial television in the UK. It was launched in Oct. ’02 and broadcasts free-to-air television channels, radio stations and interactive services from the BBC, Sky and other broadcasters.

Freeview uses the DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) standard which is similar to US Digital-Television (DTV) in that it also uses the MPEG compression scheme to transport digital audio, video and other data.

Like DTV in the US, in order to view digital terrestrial signals you need either a digital-to-analog set-top box or television with built-in digital tuner. If you want to view the HD (High-Definition) broadcasts you will need an HDTV (High-Definition Television.)