Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) represents the citizen and consumer interest
in broadcasting and works for quality and diversity in British broadcasting.

Government Criteria for Analogue Switch-off Must be Clarified if target for Digital Switch-Over is to be achieved by 2010. 

The Government must clarify the criteria it will use for switching off analogue television if it is to meet its target of switching the country to digital transmission by 2010, says Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV). It must also launch a public information campaign to explain the process of switch-over and the benefits it expects will result for individual consumers and the nation.

Sales of digital TV sets and set-top-boxes have boomed In the run-up to Christmas, and around half of all UK households now have access to digital television, either via the free-to-air digital terrestrial (DTT) service Freeview, or via satellite or cable platforms. Viewers in nearly a quarter of the UK, however, are still unable to receive the Freeview signals because they lie outside the DTT reception area. Others cannot afford, or are unwilling, to subscribe to satellite or cable services. Sales of DAB digital radio sets have also boomed but again listeners in about a quarter of the country cannot receive all signals. 

During the Christmas holiday and the weeks preceding it, VLV has received an increasing number of complaints from viewers and listeners unable to receive the heavily promoted digital TV and radio services, yet many are helping to fund them via the licence fee. 

VLV board member Professor Vincent Porter, who sits on the Expert Consumer Group advising Ministers on the process of digital switch-over, explained in a recent speech the urgent need for greater clarity in the three criteria for analogue switch-off set by Chris Smith the former Culture Secretary, and still in use. Professor Porter suggested the Expert Group should be given this task as a priority in 2004. (Copy of Porter’s speech attached) 

The three criteria which the government says must be met before analogue switch-off can commence are: availability, affordability and accessibility. But, says Professor Porter, the differences now emerging between the three principal delivery platforms demand a much clearer definition than that put forward by Chris Smith over three years ago. For instance:

*Availability: 99.4 per cent of the population would be covered by digital transmissions. 

Is this figure based on the coverage of free-to-air signals? Or does it include digital satellite and digital cable as well as digital terrestrial (DTT)? DTT reach is limited and much work still needs to be done on the technical problems of terrestrial and satellite delivery and reception.

*Affordability: the take-up of digital equipment would be used as a measure to decide whether or not digital television was affordable for the vast majority of people, including older people and those on fixed incomes, said Chris Smith.

How will this be interpreted in practice, especially if analogue switch-off is phased in across different regions? In many inner-city areas it will be difficult to meet the government’s target of 99.4 percent digital coverage without including cable as one of the delivery platforms. Yet for those forced to rely on cable, affordability will not relate solely to the cost of buying new capital equipment, but also to the ongoing cost of subscribing to a delivery platform which is not broadcast free-to-air. Affordability also affects accessibility.

* Accessibility: 95 percent of consumers must have access to digital equipment. 

Does this criterion apply simply to households with digital receivers or to all the equipment within the home? UK households possess, on average, 2.34 TV sets each, plus 1.5 video recorders. What regard will be taken of the cost of replacing these extra sets and recorders? What about viewers who find they can only access the new services via a satellite or cable service which involves an ongoing subscription cost?

Commenting, VLV chair, Jocelyn Hay said: ‘These issues are far more complex than might appear at first glance and there is huge confusion among consumers about what is available and what it might cost them. Professor Porter will be raising the urgent need for a clearer definition of the criteria for switch-over than now exists with the Expert Consumer Advisory Group at its next meeting. 

I shall also be raising these issues at the January meeting of the Government’s Digital Stakeholder Group, on which I represent VLV, because we have received so many complaints in the run-up to Christmas from people unable to find satisfactory answers to their enquiries about digital reception and about digital services and equipment.

Meantime VLV believes the government must recognise that some of the money it ultimately expects to raise from the sale of analogue frequency spectrum should be earmarked now to fund the roll-out of DTT and broadband transmission to the final 10 – 12 per cent of the UK for which it will not be commercially viable. 

We are also calling on the Government to launch a comprehensive campaign to inform the public about the process of digital switch-over and the economic benefits that could accrue to the UK if its present lead in digital take-up and technology is fully exploited. We fear that unless the government does so, it will find it increasingly difficult to persuade those who have not yet invested in the new technology to do so, and the possibility of achieving its target of switching-off analogue transmissions by 2010 becomes more and more unlikely.

A copy of Professor Vincent Porter’s speech is attached - please click here.

For further information, contact: Jocelyn Hay. 
Tel: (00)1474-352835; Fax:  (00)1474-351112.
Email: vlv@btinternet.com

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