As expected, the BBC Trust, having considered a public value assessment carried out by the BBC Trust Unit and a market impact assessment conducted by Ofcom, has provisionally approved the proposals for a BBC HD television channel, subject to some limited conditions.

The Trust's provisional conclusions are now subject to a 4-week public consultation period and the Trust expects to reach and publish its final decision by Wednesday 21 November.

The conditions state that the BBC HD channel, currently on trial via cable and satellite, must be available on Freesat when it launches and that it should ideally be accessible via Freeview.

A full HD broadcast via the Freeview platform, although technically possible if Ofcom frees up some bandwidth, would mean consumers upgrading their Freeview boxes, which is a concern highlighted by the Trust.

Other conditions relate to the multi-genre nature of the content, "the channel should not replicate BBC One", and conditions that would eventually see HD programming available via the Internet.

>> Link - BBC