Two thirds of people will be less likely to invest in digital television should the BBC introduce an additional digital licence fee, said TBS director Dermot Nolan at this week’s IBC UK Digital TV Conference.
According to a survey carried out by NOP last weekend, 35% of people said they would be much less likely to buy digital TV should the new licence fee be introduced, and 29% said that they would be a little less likely.
Free to air digital terrestrial television penetration would be virtually halved with the introduction of the fee, according to the study. It would also have a knock-on effect for subscription levels to premium packages for ONdigital, Sky Digital and cable. The report expects analogue television sales to be prolonged as people postpone the switch to DTV. This is possibly bad news for manufacturers producing the new iDTVs (integrated digital televisions).
A collective of senior figures in the UK television industry, including Mark Booth, chief executive of BSkyB and Stephen Grabiner, ONdigital’s chief executive, have voiced strong opposition to the introduction of the additional licence fee (see Newsline).
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