Option 5. Get rid of all the +1 channels and free up loads of bandwidth. These channels are practically useless – if you want to watch a digital broadcast later, record it. People have been recording for years, and modern recorders timeslip to boot. The latest sets even record without the need for a separate PVR. Get real, get rid of +1s.

Now here’s a funny thing;

http://www.linowsat.co.uk/0282/bitrate/205010847.html

The above shows that the multiplex on the satellite transponder chosen to emit BBC-HD has no less than 8 Mb/s of ‘bit-stuffing’, these are null bytes sent to ‘fill’ unused capacity in the stream.

So, why would the BBC ? Choose to;

a. Stuff the mux with 8Mb/s of null packets.

b. Continue to use DVB-S (which has 30% less capacity than DVB-S2) on this transponder, when most broadcasters around the World use DVB-S2 and have been for 3 years.

I think we all know the answer.

A DVB-T2 terrestrial carrier can only deliver 36Mb/s at best and the BBC must make terrestrial FreeView-HD happen, for their very lives, so satellite delivery is crippled to make it appear ‘identical’.