Switching on to switchover

If 2005 was the year when the Government finally confirmed that digital switchover will take place and the formal timetable (region by region from 2008 to 2012), then 2006 is the year when the spectrum issues are finally resolved at the Regional Radio Conference in Geneva and when the detailed planning really needs to happen. To oversimplify a vastly complex project, essentially there are two elements to switchover.

First, there is the technical programme of converting all the current 1,154 analogue transmitters. Althought this is a massive exercise, my feeling is that people know what needs to be done and have detailed plans to do it. At a recent seminar on switchover, Alan Watson – a consultant to Arqiva – said that the technical programme was feasible but that there were risks, the most serious being the weather: �It�s something which happens in the UK�.

Second, there is the consumer programme of advising some 26 million households on what needs to be done and putting in place support programmes to help those who will find the process difficult and/or expensive. My sense here is that much more thinking and planning are necessary.

Over the next couple of months, we should see the results of a trial in Bolton concerning the needs of the elderly and disabled consumers and a pilot in the Borders region (the first for switchover) on identification of the socially isolated. Meanwhile talks are going on concerning an accreditation scheme on installation by the so-called ‘man in a van’ and on the details of the schemes to provide targeted technical and/or financial help to those consumers who will be eligible for this on either a free or subsidized basis (almost 6 million households).

Also, of course, the Government needs to finalise the licence fee settlement with the BBC which will include a specific element for the funding of switchover. This will come in to effect in April 2007 in time for the Borders to switch in September 2008.

Then there is the challenge facing manufacturers and the supply chain. At a recent seminar, 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. Meanwhile consumer and disability groups are concerned about issues of affordability and usability of set top boxes and remore controls.

Switchover is such a huge and complex operation that it is absolutely essential that everyone involved knows exactly who is responsible for what. The main player is DigitalUK which has developed nine workstreams and has a consumer-focused web site, but other important roles are performed by DCMS and DTI which has a joint web site on the issue and Ofcom whose web site section on the subject takes some finding. The Consumer Expert Group has been reconstituted and the Ofcom Consumer Panel has switchover as a priority area of work. The whole thing is overseen by the Ministers’ Group.

So, all in all, there is plenty to do and OfcomWatch will be regularly posting on progress.