Channel 4 and S4C have applied to Ofcom to launch a new Freeview offering that would include a HD video on demand service. The service would push programming from around the world to hard disks inside set top boxes during the early hours of the morning. But it’s just one part of a three-pronged application to occupy capacity on the so-called Multiplex B radio spectrum that’s due to be reorganised. The service would work like this…

—4am-7am - push VOD: Much like Sky’s Anytime service pushes programmes to the half of viewers’ Sky+ boxes that is reserved for BSkyB’s own selection of shows, C4/S4C say: “We would like to use this as an opportunity to showcase the best of HD programmes from around the world. The inherent spectrum constraints of the DTT platform make it difficult to provide as wide an HD offering as other platforms, which we plan to address by providing this additional video on demand service.” The pair say this would “constitute a significant enhancement of the Freeview platform”. “Pick-of-the-best” HD shows would be pushed to set top boxes from C4, S4C and other “potential partners”, who aren’t named.

—7am-11am - new kids’ channel: This would extend an offering like Cyw, a public service children’s TV service S4C launched in June, to the rest of the UK in both Welsh and English. This would clearly please observers worried at threats to kids’ TV programming, an area in which S4C has a rich heritage, and is likely to be a boon to Wales’ independent TV production sector. To help run the service, S4C would like to bid for competitive funding - a new fund Ofcom is considering introducing. Cyw is also currently streaming online.

—11am-4am - Film4 HD: The bulk of the service would be given to airing C4’s existing movies channel in hi-def, extending its current 12-hour run to 17. “The launch of Channel 4’s HD simulcast service on Sky in 2007 has led to the creation of a library of films in HD format.”

The pair say they can spearhead VOD for Freeview: “Channel 4 can use its experience as the first broadcaster to launch a VoD service online to demonstrate the likely consumer take-up of VoD on Freeview and so encourage manufacturers to include ethernet ports on all STBs and compatible PVR’s with a range of memory size options.  The widespread take- up of hard drives in reception equipment will then open the opportunity for the development of full VoD functionality through the platform. “

Some stumbling blocks…
—The new launch is “subject to the ability of both parties to fund it”. Both C4 and S4C are facing shortfalls and are eager for Ofcom to resolve the public service broadcast funding issue.
—S4C is currently barred from airing English-language content; it’s seeking Ofcom’s permission to alter those terms.
—Five has lodged a rival application that would simulcast its core channel as HD from 5pm to 1am, give 6am-5pm over to another broadcaster and reserve 1am-6am for the same kind of push VOD proposed by C4/S4C for “the most popular content”.

Ofcom essentially has two proposals on the table for a Freeview push VOD service. While the C4/S4C proposal is much more fully formed, Five’s, too, leaves the door open for S4C’s kids service and another operator in a joint arrangement. Freeview Multplex B, currently operated by BBC, is being reorganised by Ofcom to give one slot to the BBC and another one each to C4/S4C separately (depending on whether you’re in Wales or elsewhere). This week’s applications are to operate the final slot on the multiplex.