Jonathan Thompson on consumer-friendly connectivity, airwave auctions – and who pays for new aerials

Despite being the nation’s most popular method of watching TV, two years ago Freeview was in danger of drifting towards switchoff, overwhelmed by the mobile industry’s predictions of an all-online future, the ill-fated YouView, Sky’s expansion and the introduction of internet TV services such as Netflix.

Instead it has survived and, for all the talk of new ways of watching, is still how the majority of the UK tunes in. It’s a point that can be easy for the capital-centric media sector to forget, says Jonathan Thompson, chief executive of the company that is tasked with overseeing Freeview’s business and operations, Digital UK.