A senior Ofcom figure has re-affirmed the media regulator's intention to auction our analogue TV frequencies to the highest bidder.

Speaking to Media Guardian, Philip Rutnam said the plan to auction the so-called Digital Dividend was about viewer choice, not raising money for the Treasury.

Mr Rutnam, a former Treasury official who's now the leading partner on the development of Ofcom’s spectrum policy, still disagrees with the findings of the DTG and HDforAll that there's no room for HD in the current Freeview multiplexes.

"It is not our objective to maximise or raise any particular amount of
proceeds," adds Mr Rutnam. "The motivation is all about bringing more choice to viewers. The heart of our job is to get to the nub of the arguments. That means discounting a lot of purely self-interested representation, and trying to understand what is really going to serve consumers and citizens best. Everybody sees this valuable resource coming up and they want a piece of it."

"It's important to remember that of the spectrum being released, 70% has already been awarded to the public-service broadcasters. That could have had other uses but for a generation it's reserved for them."

"We're not against intervention per se. But what we are saying is that any case for intervention has to be clear, compelling, tough-minded and transparent. The days when spectrum could be doled out by governments or regulators in a system of barter are gone. There are more and more ways of delivering public value."

"One of our priorities has been trying to change the way spectrum is
managed - much more flexible, much more responsive and much less
Soviet-style command and control, which is the historic way spectrum
has been managed."

"The driving force for this is to ensure the British consumer is not left behind the rest of Europe."

And he blithely dismissed the claims of Michael Grade, the BBC, the Digital Television Group, and TV manufacturers including Sony, that Ofcom's proposals for hi-def on Freeview are unworkable.

"Grade said the problems were insurmountable," he said. "In my experience
things are rarely insurmountable, if there is sufficient will to make them surmountable."

Mr Rutnam's biography at Ofcom demonstrates significant experience in financial policy, but little in broadcasting policy. It reads: "A former senior Treasury official, Philip Rutnam’s career includes two years in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, a period as Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary and responsibility for the Treasury’s interest in business and enterprise. He was also previously UK alternate director at the European Investment Bank. He was educated at Cambridge and Harvard."