The Stage

Ofcom offers advice on digital switchover

Published Tuesday 13 April 2004 at 11:45 by Joanna Taylor

Ofcom has published a long list of proposals designed to make achievable the 2010 target date for switching off analogue television and replacing it with digital.

The broadcasting regulator put forward 23 suggestions for the government to consider if it is to reach the goal that many commentators have argued is unrealistic. Entitled Driving Digital Switchover, the report states that analogue receivers should be turned off region by region, starting as early as 2007. Selected analogue channels, such as BBC1 or BBC2, could be changed to the digital system first so that no screens would go blank overnight.

Other proposals include giving broadcasters greater incentives to make the change to digital - such as reductions on the licences they pay to broadcast via the digital spectrum. Also the BBC’s Charter could be changed to have specific obligations for promoting digital TV, such as ensuring every part of the country can receive the digital transmission and providing public information.

Ofcom senior partner Ed Richards said: “What we have tried to do is identify where there are obstacles to switchover. We are not saying we have come up with all the answers but we have sought to identify a path forward.”

In September last year culture secretary Tessa Jowell gave assurances that the 2010 target date for digital TV could be met. However, earlier that month, former Channel 5 chief executive and current chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council David Elstein warned that turning off the analogue spectrum could cost the public in excess of £10 billion.

David Mercer, principal analyst at the research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, said that the 2010 date cannot be met but switch-off could become realistic in the next decade.