Digital Switchover To Begin In Three Years
Media super-regulator, Ofcom, has set out the first timetable for digital TV switchover, specifying which towns and cities will lose their existing analogue coverage, and when.
Under the watchdog’s plans, Carlisle, Exeter and Cardiff will be amongst the first cities to lose their analogue signals in 2008, while the Channel Islands will be the last to switch to digital-only broadcasts, making the jump in 2012.
Explaining the process of switching over to digital-only TV broadcasts Ofcom said: “As a result of the sequenced rollout, some regions in the UK would make the switch to digital a number of years before others. In any given region, in order to allow all the remaining analogue viewers sufficient time to make the switch and ensure that all the transmitters in that region are converted, it is proposed that each region will take about six months to convert.”
The watchdog continued: “The transition process would begin with one analogue service being replaced by a digital multiplex service (carrying the digital version of that analogue service plus a number of other public service channels). This digital multiplex will be broadcast throughout the region (on all main stations and relays) with sufficient power to replicate the coverage of the analogue broadcasts across the entire region. The other analogue services will continue to be broadcast and the remaining analogue-only viewers will have a number of months to make arrangements for watching television after the switch-off by means either of digital terrestrial, satellite or cable services.”
The watchdog’s proposed sequence for switching over the nation’s analogue transmitters will see the Border, Westcountry and HTV Wales areas converted to digital in 2008, while Granada, HTV West, Grampian and Scottish TV follow in 2009. The Central, Yorkshire and Anglia regions would be converted in 2010, while Meridian, Carlton/LWT, Tyne Tees and Ulster made the switch in 2011. The final phase of the operation would be to switch the Channel region to digital-only broadcasts in time for the 2012 switchover deadline.
It had previously been suggested that the UK’s digital switchover could begin as early as 2007, although Ofcom’s latest announcement proves otherwise, with the technical requirements of the operation requiring an extra year for the regulator to implement the change (see Ofcom Announces Plans For Early Digital Switch-Over).
Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk
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