Consumers Confused About Digital Switchover

Consumers are confused about the digital switchover and are still buying analogue TV sets, according to a parliamentary committee report.

The report said that although the switchover timetable is on track to be completed on time, the digital tick labelling scheme is a mystery to many sales staff and customers, while many people are still buying analogue televisions.

Edward Leigh, chair of the committee, said:: “Many viewers do not seem fully to understand the implications of the analogue switch-off and are still buying analogue televisions – unaware that they have built-in obsolescence.

“The evidence is that the digital tick label, with which digital televisions are flagged in shops, is a mystery to many retail staff, let alone the people to whom they sell TVs.”

The report also criticised the departments for culture, media and sport and for business, enterprise and regulatory reform for handing over £803 million of licence fee money to the BBC without making sure it could keep proper track of spending.

Leigh said: “The government has decided to pay over £800 million of ring-fenced licence fee money to the BBC to fund digital switchover, without either ensuring adequate accountability to parliament or spelling out exactly what it wants for the money.”

In March, a report from Ofcom revealed that a quarter of Freeview households in Wales and Northern Ireland – and a fifth in the Meridian and Anglia regions of England – would not have full access to the digital terrestrial TV channels after analogue switchoff (see Ofcom Reveals Switchover Problems).

The town of Whitehaven in Cumbria became the first place in the UK to lose its analogue signal in October last year (see Digital Switchover Begins Today).

Switchover is taking place region by region until it is completed in 2012.

Digital UK: www.digitaluk.co.uk