Arqiva wants the UK terrestrial TV switch-off pushed to 2044. The current plan says 2034

The transmission company set out the case in its reply to a government green paper on how television reaches homes. The current working date for the switch-off is 2034.

Arqiva says the spectrum can still be freed in 2034

The plan separates two things that are usually bundled together. Broadcasters would keep transmitting on the terrestrial network until 2044. The spectrum the government wants to sell would still come free a decade earlier, in 2034.

Arqiva calls a managed 2044 date the most practical, affordable and resilient option. It argues the shift to internet television should be led by viewers rather than by a deadline.

The pitch to broadcasters is half the transmission bill

Arqiva puts two numbers on the plan. Transmission costs for broadcasters would fall by up to 50 per cent. Energy use would drop by around 40 per cent.

Both figures come from the company that runs the network, and neither has been checked by the regulator. Arqiva has a direct interest in how long the towers stay lit.

Advertisers keep a mass-reach channel for another ten years

Terrestrial television is the only screen that reaches households without a broadband contract. A 2034 switch-off would end that in eight years. A 2044 date pushes it out to eighteen.

The trend runs the other way regardless. UK adults now spend 44 per cent of their commercial media time alone with a screen, and public broadcasters are already trimming output, as WDR showed by cutting 76 programmes.

Media owners are building the replacement in parallel. ZDF added more than 15 themed channels to its streaming app this month.

Arqiva gains ten more years of transmission contracts, and broadcasters gain a cheaper way to keep universal reach. The Treasury loses nothing on spectrum, since that still clears in 2034. The households that lose are the ones with no broadband, and they lose either way, only later.