Does "Freeview" TV exist in other countries?

[CRSP]

Do other countries have an equivalent of British Freeview? That is, free digital TV (about thirty channels) that only needs a set top box (i.e. no subscriptions, or other fees), or is all e.g. American digital TV subscription based?

[What Exit?]

We have High Def over the air in the US. The number of stations vary by location but is about to increase dramatically. It will probably never be more then 10 stations though.

[Derleth]

We have High Def over the air in the US.

We have digital TV over the air. I don't know if it's usually HD, which is not the same thing. (Not all digital is HD.)

[SeeOhTwo]

Isn't there a tv tax in Britain?

[maggenpye]

We have it down here and apparently they either have it or aren't far away from it in Aussie.

Low pick-up rate in NZ because the tech's expensive (the down side of being farfar away from everywhere).

[Kiwi Fruit]

We have Freeview here in NZ. It apparently uses DVB-T (T for Terrestrial) standard transmissions, which I believe has a number of different implementations. Note that the Freeview site has a faq about whether Australian or UK receivers would work in NZ, with the answer being NO.

NZ uses MPEG-4 coding, AUS uses MPEG-2.

[Caught@Work]

http://www.freeview.com.au/
Only recently. I have no set top box, so I don't watch it.

[Martini Enfield]

http://www.freeview.com.au/
Only recently. I have no set top box, so I don't watch it.

They only recently rebranded it "Freeview" because no-one wanted to pay $100 to buy a set-top box to get an extra ABC channel and the news in Czechoslovakian from SBS. I'm not quite sure how renaming the whole exercise is going to acheive anything, because it still boils down to "Buy a set top box or a digital telly unless you want to be watching static from 2013".

Australia is using DVB-T, but overall people just aren't interested in digital TV, and won't be (IMHO) until the plug gets pulled on analogue TV and half the country suddenly realises they can't watch Home & Away or The Footy anymore on their old TV.

Digital TV has been around for a few years here, though; but with an embarrasingly low uptake rate -something in the region of 30-35%, last I heard.

[Control-Z]

Here in rural Virginia, USA I get about 20 free channels with an amplified indoor antenna. About 1/3 of those are high definition (720p or 1080i.) USA high-definition televisions generally have built-in "ATSC" tuners, so no separate box is necessary.

[dynamitedave]

I've noticed that some of Sony's TVs have an inbuilt DVB-T Freeview tuner.

But that's not entirely helpful as Freeview is delivered both by land and satellite, each with a slightly different channel make-up. DVB-T is in the larger cities which gives an HD option; DVB-S for everywhere, which is just normal definition.

And then there's the politics with the various networks, Sky won't let their FTA channel (Top Gear, Doc Who, Mythbusters) be broadcast over Freeview, even though the other networks allow the reverse. And it seems the local access stations haven't been offered a spot on DVB-T, just a shared channel on DVB-S.

[bump]

We have High Def over the air in the US. The number of stations vary by location but is about to increase dramatically. It will probably never be more then 10 stations though.

All the US broadcast tv stations are about to go digital in the very near future (June 12th), and broadcast stations are free.

HD is a different story- not all HD is digital, and not all digital is HD.

[parzival]

In the US, the government also set up a program to provide people vouchers to purchase ATSC tuners to convert the digital signal for older TVs. It was partly the failure to anticipate and meet demand (especially in light of the failing economy) that delayed the mandated switch by several months.

A handful of low-power TV stations aren't required to upgrade by the deadline, though.

HD is a different story- not all HD is digital, and not all digital is HD.

Are there any existing broadcasts of HD that aren't digital, though?