Overview
Freeview officially launched on 30 October 2002 at 5 am when the BBC and Crown Castle (now Arqiva) officially took over the digital terrestrial television (DTT) licences to broadcast on the three multiplexes from the defunct ITV Digital (originally called ONdigital). The founding members of DTV Services, who trade as Freeview, were the BBC, Crown Castle UK (now part of Arqiva) and British Sky Broadcasting. On 11 October 2006, ITV plc and Channel 4 became equal shareholders. Since then, the Freeview model has been copied in Australia and New Zealand.
Read more about this topic: Freeview (UK)