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The government’s new media green paper, Watch this Space: A New Strategic Direction for UK Media, has opened a consultation on the future of television distribution in the UK, including the future of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), which carries Freeview.

The question is not only how television will be delivered in the years ahead. It is also how television access in the 2030s can protect the simplicity and reach that free-to-air broadcasting still provides for people who rely on it for public service broadcasting and trusted information.

The Green Paper includes options for a managed transition from DTT to internet-based television, with 2034 and 2044 identified as possible timelines. The government has said no immediate changes are being made to how people receive television, and that DTT is secured until at least 2034 – but decisions are required now on whether terrestrial TV will last beyond that date.

The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) is calling for universal access to guide the decisions that follow. Freeview remains familiar and available without the added cost of a high-speed broadband contract. A future that depends more heavily on internet-based television would also depend on reliable connectivity, suitable equipment and the confidence to use online services. Those conditions cannot be assumed or guaranteed in every household.

Concern about the future of Freeview has already been raised directly with government. In April, the DPA joined Silver Voices and the Broadcast 2040+ Coalition at Downing Street to hand over a petition signed by more than 140,000 people calling for free-to-air terrestrial television to be protected.

Any future transition should be judged by whether households have the practical means to make it, not only by whether the technology is available.

“Before any switch-off date is considered, government would need to be confident that every household has access to affordable broadband, suitable equipment and the digital confidence needed to make the change – based on guarantees, not hopes,” said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance.

“The future of television should be more accessible, not less, and no household should be left behind because the route to watching television has become more expensive, more complicated or less reliable. The current hybrid system provides choice, and we have seen the exclusion that follows when services are moved online only – with something so important as television, we cannot be in a situation where people have no alternative but to be disconnected from news, entertainment and a feeling of social connectedness.”

The DPA will respond to the consultation, which closes on 31 August 2026.