History
Following the collapse of ITV Digital, the Independent Television Commission re-advertised the licences for the three multiplexes (MUX B, C and D) that had been used by ITV Digital. On 16 August 2002, the licences were granted to members of the Freeview consortium, with BBC getting multiplex B and Crown Castle getting multiplexes C and D.
Although all pay channels had been closed down on ITV Digital, many free-to-air channels continued broadcasting, including the five analogue channels, the BBC channels and ITV2, ITN News Channel, S4C2, TV Travel Shop and QVC.
Freeview launched on 30 October 2002. Sky Travel, UK History, Sky News, Sky Sports News, The Hits (now 4Music) and TMF (now Viva) were available from the start. BBC Four and the interactive BBC streams were moved to multiplex B. Under the initial plans, the two multiplexes operated by Crown Castle would carry eight channels altogether. The seventh stream became shared by UK Bright Ideas and Ftn which launched in February 2003. The eighth stream was left unused until April 2004 when the shopping channel Ideal World launched on Freeview. There are now 14 streams carried by the two multiplexes, with Multiplex C carrying 6 streams, and Multiplex D carrying 8. It has recently been announced that more streams are now available on the multiplexes, and that bidding is under way.
On 23 August 2010, Sky Sports News was removed from Freeview and replaced with Sky3 +1.
Read more about this topic: Freeview (UK)
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