Digital UK left with £55m surplus from switchover campaign

Digital UK, the company responsible for the digital TV switchover campaign, is expected to hand back £55 million to the government in 2012.

The £55 million surplus cash, which has been left over from the money set aside to inform customers about the switchover, is in addition to the estimated £250 million left over from the digital help scheme, which was designed to help lower-income families go digital.

Last week, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the government has already allocated money to pay for the roll-out of broadband services in rural areas, which potentially leaves other media companies in the picture for the excess cash, including ITV, according to reports.

In 2005, Digital UK was allocated £201 million to fund the UK switchover campaign, to inform people when their region is being switched from analogue to digital and what they need to do.  The fund was partly made up of excess BBC licence fee money.

So far, the group has run short ad campaigns in regions that have already been converted – the Border region, the West Country, Wales, the north-west and west of England – as well as worked with local charities to help more vulnerable viewers.

The switchover has gone more smoothly than expected, helped by the fact that so many people already have digital television.  20% of UK homes have already been converted to digital.

As a result, Digital UK is running “significantly under budget”.  A spokesperson for the group said: “Although it’s still early days, TV switchover is going smoothly and we are on track to finish on time in 2012 and significantly under budget. Where we can, we will continue to look for ways to improve our information campaign and save money.”

A Department for Culture, Media & Sport spokesperson added: “Ministers have been clear that the priority use of money that is a surplus from digital switchover is to support broadband in the UK, but in terms of specifics things are still being finalised.”