In NZ there has been freeview, basically it has been a temp situation really where old satalite dishes and sky dishes left behind by previous owners you could by a freeview box and get better reception then normal aerial TV and a few more channels.
Next week though they are finally rolling out true digital freeview and will be the same affair as the UK with using aerial but 99% of the time you would need a digital proof one and a freeview box,
In my NZ thread I mentioned that Sky is the only real digital provider and is similar to UK sky and also different in many ways but here it does not have the monopoly on TV shows as in the UK so more of the new stuff (well most) are on the free to air channels but with a few more adds then you would expect in the UK.
Now the freeview launching here next week which I intend to get is not just digital freeview but they are launching it with HD channels as well, a number of the channels at launch and then soon after will be in hd and the boxes have hdmi etc with them.
This will be great on the HD TV here but I then though if this is indeed possible why is it not the case the UK offered HD along with the UK freeview? Is it becuase the UK will be going full digital and they did not want the added HD requirement or is it something to do with HD licensing in the UK?
NZ is behind the UK in many things by a few years, equal on others but with this strange that they are offering this and the UK is not, any ideas?

PS: Shops are the same, you got big name companies but they just do not have the monopoly as in the UK so you have industry sites or sites with rows of shops (not just little garage ones either, big stores) for all sorts and you really, like we did today for some wifi stuff and found a great shop , have to drive around and explore or get the lay of the land and you can make 3 passes in an area and miss a lot of shops down a road and then find something on the 4th run and prices vary all over the place