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The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) joined campaigners at Downing Street yesterday to hand over a petition signed by more than 140,000 people calling on the Government to protect the future of Freeview.

Organised by Silver Voices with support from the DPA and the Broadcast 2040+ Coalition, the petition urges ministers to maintain free-to-air terrestrial television until at least the mid 2040s, amid concerns that a move to internet-only broadcasting would place new costs and barriers on households across the UK.

Freeview remains a straightforward and reliable way for people to access news, information and entertainment. Campaigners have warned that any rapid shift to IPTV-only services could hit older people, disabled viewers and low-income families hardest, particularly where affordability, connectivity and digital confidence remain unresolved.

The DPA supported the campaign because the future of television access cannot be treated as a purely technical question. It is also a question of inclusion. Requiring every household to rely on high-speed fixed broadband to watch TV risks excluding people at a time when affordability and access are already under strain, alongside the new skills and digital resilience required to transition to Internet only television.

Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance, yesterday said:

“Digital progress must widen access, not narrow it. Freeview remains one of the clearest examples of universal access in practice: simple, familiar and available without the added cost of high-speed broadband. Any decision about the future of broadcasting must reflect the reality people are living with, not an assumption that everyone is equally ready for an internet-only system. Television is vital to social resilience and endangering by creating new cost and confidence barriers would be reckless.”

The Government is expected to decide on the future of terrestrial broadcasting in the coming months.