Digital switchover seminar

On Thursday afternoon, the Westminster Media Forum held a seminar on digital switchover. It was chaired by John Whittingdale MP who chairs the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media & Sports which will open hearings on this issue on Tuesday morning. Some of the main points were as follows:

• The case for switchover was articulated mainly by Jon Zeff of the DCMS and Caroline Thomson of the BBC: individual consumer benefits of better quality picture, much more choice of channels, and better access services and national benefits of universal availability of the DTT signal, elimination of dual transmission costs, and release of spectrum for other uses. Thomson added: “The element of compulsion is in some ways regretable”. In Europe, only France has not set a date for switchover.
• However, there were some sceptics, most notably David Elstein. Although he insisted “I’m a great believer in digital telvision”, he is totally opposed to the current switchover timetable. He claimed that digital switchover will involve ten times the cost and the complexity of the Channel Five retuning exercise with which he was heavily involved and urged that the Government leaves the change to the market. Ford Ennals, Chief Executive of Digtal UK, quipped “He [Elstein] loves to zig when everyone else is zagging” and insisted that “I think he’s alarmist and just plain wrong”. Another critical is independent analyst Chris Goodall. He argued that the economic case for switchover is “unproven” and becoming weaker. However, he recognises that the political decision has been taken and urged the audience and the Select Committee to pay more attention to assistance that will be needed by the old and the vulnerable (”Those who gain least will suffer most”) and to the extra electricity consumption that will result (equivalent to two medium-sized power stations he asserted).
• Everyone recognised and acknowledged the size of the challenge. At the technical level, Alan Watson – a consultant to Arqiva – said that the programme was feasible but that there were risks, the most serious being the weather: “It’s something which happens in the UK”. Danny Churchill of Dixons calculated that the 26 million homes in the Uk have a total of 78 million units that will need to be digitally-enabled. He was not too concerned about the first region to switch (Borders) because it small (350,000 homes). but he was worried about when the programme reaches a huge region like Granada. However, for Digital UK, Ford Ennals was embullient about the whole exercise, explaining that there would be two mailings to very household plus media advertising, a web site and a call centre.
• There were several expressions of the consumer viewpoint. From the top table, Alison Hopkins of the National Consumer Council expressed concern about those who have not yet switched and who do not want to, especially the elderly and those with disabilities. She drew attention to the Bolton trial and hoped that this would provide valuable lessons on how individuals could be assisted. From the floor, Colette Bowe and Ruth Evans, Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, highlighted the problems of the socially isolated and drew attention to the Panel’s report on the vulnerable consumers in switchover.
• David Johnston of Philips Electronics UK made the point that “Analogue switchoff iis not the end of the game – it’s the start of an adventure”. Several speakers mentioned the arrival of high definition television and other developments such as mobile television and video telephony.