BBC To Allay Switchover Fears With Open Days

The BBC has announced a digital drop-in day for the public to answer any questions they may have about the impending digital switchover planned for 2008 onwards.

BBC Birmingham’s Public Space will open its doors to the public on Friday 1st April between 10pm and 3pm to answer any questions people may have about the digital change.

Yesterday the BBC was accused of “misleading consumers and hampering progress towards the digital switchover by pushing cheap Freeview boxes” by Intellect, according to reports in The Guardian.

Intellect, a trade body for electronics manufactures accused the BBC of concentrating too much on pushing Freeview to consumers, encouraging people to buy a cheap set-top box rather than more expensive digital television sets.

The argument stemmed from the new Easter advertising campaign, launched yesterday by the BBC with the strap line “you can teach an old television new tricks”.

Last month, media watchdog, Ofcom, set out the first timetable for the digital TV switchover, specifying which towns and cities would lose their existing analogue coverage, and when (see Digital Switchover To Begin In Three Years).

Ofcom revealed that Carlisle, Exeter and Cardiff would be amongst the first cities to lose their analogue signals in 2008, while the Channel Islands would be the last to make the jump in 2012.

It had previously been suggested that the UK’s digital switchover could begin as early as 2007, although Ofcom’s announcement proves otherwise, with the technical aspects of the operation requiring an extra year to implement (see Ofcom Announces Plans For Early Digital Switch-Over).

Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, recently proposed a new 10-year charter for the BBC, running from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2016 to give viewers more “stability” during the switchover to digital-only TV (see Governors Axed As BBC Charter Renewed For 10 Years).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk

Recent Stories from NewsLine BBC Cuts 1,700 Jobs To Reinvest In Programmes SMG Enjoys 9% Rise In Profit For 2004 Sky Claims Advertisers Have Nothing To Fear From PVRs

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive