BBC to return £300m switchover money as London celebrates going digital

The BBC will return nearly half of the £600 million fund it was given to help the elderly and disabled convert from analogue to digital TV.

The switchover has proved to be more straightforward than many people had predicted, with one of the biggest hurdles cleared last night when analogue BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 were turned off across the London region. The London TV region has about five million households and 12 million television sets.

Arqiva, the company that has engineered the digital switchover project, hosted an event at the Crystal Palace transmitter (pictured) last night to mark the occasion. The tower was illuminated with more than 200,000 watts of energy-efficient lighting – the same wattage it takes to light the Eiffel Tower. The show was hosted by radio DJ Chris Evans, with an appearance from Sir David Attenborough.

Around nine in 10 households have now completed the switchover process, which began in Whitehaven in Cumbria on 17 October 2007.

A total of £603 million was allocated out of licence fee revenues to help the over-75s, the blind and partially sighted and with other serious disabilities to switch to digital TV. Eligible households were given free help to convert one set but the total cost has been much cheaper than the original projection.

The BBC expects to return almost £300 million of the fund to the government, which will spend it on rolling out broadband services and new local TV services.