Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom

Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom encompasses over 100 television, radio and interactive services broadcast via the UK's terrestrial television network and receivable with a standard television set. The majority of digital terrestrial television (DTT) services, including the five former analogue channels, are broadcast free-to-air, and a further selection of encrypted pay TV services (such as BT Sport) are also available.

Freeview is the only DTT service since Top Up TV closed in 2013. BT TV offers only BT Sport on DTT and their other services are carried via IPTV signals.

The digital broadcasting technology adopted in the UK is the DVB-T system (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) carrying compressed digital audio, video and other data in a combined transport stream, using COFDM modulation. A total of seven national and one local 'multiplexes' are broadcast in the UK, guaranteed to reach over 90% of the country. Three of the multiplexes, carrying the free public service channels operated by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5, are guaranteed wider coverage still, reaching 98.5% of the country including areas dependent on low-power local relays.

In the UK, the switchover from analog to digital TV started on 17 October 2007 and was completed on 24 October 2012. Each group of regional transmitters had its analogue broadcasts switched off at a certain point between those dates.

Digital Terrestrial Television is commonly received by means of a compatible set-top box or integrated digital television (IDTV), connected to an appropriate receiving antenna. In most cases, reception is possible using aerials originally used for analogue television.

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