Channel 4 and ITV are to join current shareholders, BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle in the venture.
The existing three consortium members are understood to be welcoming Channel 4 and ITV on board because the two will help market the service on their channels and help Freeview attempt to take on BSkyB and the newly merged NTL and Telewest in the race to win new customers after analogue switchover begins in 2008.
It is believed that Channel 4's chief executive Andy Duncan is preparing to launch several new digital channels on Freeview, once it is part of the consortium to boost the broadcasters' overall audience share.
The first launch is likely to be a live quiz channel. Channel 4 successfully trialled quiz channel 9 Live on E4 last year and said at the time it was interested in it as a new channel proposition.
Channel 4 recently launched its digital entertainment channel E4 on Freeview and new documentary channel More4, which launches from 9pm tonight, will also transmit on Freeview.
ITV's family of channels including ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV News and the soon-to-be-launched ITV4 are all available on Freeview. The network is also planning to launch a kids' channel to occupy the daytime ITV4 slot in February.
According to the latest figures from Ofcom's Digital Television Update, Freeview has overtaken Sky as the fastest-growing TV platform with 5.5m Freeview-only homes, adding 118,500 consumers in three months.
Sky is still the largest broadcaster however, with 7.8m subscribers overall, having added 83,000 subscribers in the last quarter, down from 100,000 in the previous quarter.
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