What's the best type of DTV for me?
It very much depends on what your needs are. If you want maximum channel choice, and a high level of interactivity, then digital satellite and digital cable are going to be preferable to the Freeview service. If on the other hand you just want to extend your channel choice a little, aren’t too fussed by interactivity, and don’t like the idea of paying a subscription, then the Freeview service would seem to be the best package for you.

If you do think you’re going to be a serious multichannel viewer, then choosing between digital cable and digital satellite is a bit more complicated. First, of course, you need to check whether you’re allowed to put a dish on your roof (you may not be if you’re in an apartment block or a listed building, for instance), or whether you’re within NTL's or Telewest’s reach (which generally means in an urban area).

If you don’t like the idea of a dish on the roof (or if for one reason or another you’re not allowed to install one) and the idea of cheap bundled telephony and/or broadband appeals to you, cable is probably the best bet.

Sky Digital’s probably your best choice. However, the difference between satellite and cable in this respect is beginning to be eroded. You can get discounted phone-calls through Sky, and recently, BT has begun offering a discounted broadband service to Sky customers.

There is one last option: Top Up TV. This is available on the DTT platform (the same one that Freeview uses), and offers a 'pay-lite' package of ten premium channels for £7.99 a month. The problem with this is that it currently (as of March 2004) requires the use of an old ITV Digital box. However, you would still get the Freeview channels for free on top of that. One disadvantage is that the level of interactivity offered on one of these old boxes is pretty primitive - even compared with Freeview.

With respect to sound and picture quality, in our opinion there’s relatively little to choose between the different digital platforms themselves. Such differences as do exist tend to be channel dependent. For instance, the BBC channels tend on the whole to offer superior technical quality – whichever digital platform they happen to be broadcast on.