Digital rights management solutions to protect intellectual property rights are undergoing many changes - new protocols have had to be developed to prevent multiple copying of content. Europe is undergoing a fundamental change in the delivery of TV. This theme examines the changes and challenges undergoing the industry in delivering audio visual media services to the viewers and listeners. The UK has begun the programme of switching off analogue terrestrial TV channels in the UHF bands which have served the country since the early to mid-1960s. In its place the country is moving to digital terrestrial TV with the switch-over due to be completed in 2012. Digital TV requires less bandwidth than analogue and this frees up spectrum which is known as the 'digital dividend'. In parallel with this, the growth of satellite TV and cable TV shows no sign of slowing. The digital dividend is 112 MHz of spectrum which will be auctioned by Ofcom in late 2008. One of the prime candidates for using this freed-up spectrum is mobile TV services being delivered to small handsets nationally. Another is high definition TV. This change-out programme is being replicated all over Europe and some countries such as the Netherlands have already closed their analogue UHF TV services. The pay TV market has not been idle while this has been going on and Sky and Virgin Multimedia have both recently launched high definition TV services via satellite and cable respectively. High definition TV is only available on modern hybrid fibre coaxial cable systems, but, as seen in one of the later articles, IPTV can be delivered to homes currently only served with copper, but in the future by new fibre systems.
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