Prebble Demands Government Commitment To Digital

ITV Chief executive, Stuart Prebble, has demanded that the government make a commitment to the digital switch over, while accusing the BBC of wasting license fee payers money.

Speaking at the annual Goodman Derrick lecture last night, Prebble accused the the government of not doing enough to promote the digital switchover. He called on the Secretary of State to: “Accept that if the government wants the digital switchover to happen it has to play a more active part in driving it by promoting the benefits and giving us a government backed public information campaign.”

He called on the government to take a more proactive role and make a number of ‘bold moves’, emphasising the importance of a target date for the switch over and the need to make the switch to digital more affordable by lobbying Brussels to reduce VAT on digital television sets.

He said: “The government needs to bite the bullet. Appoint a single person with responsibility for delivering the digital project and give them the power to cut through the barriers to achieving it.”Talking about Britain’s lack of initiative with broadband penetration Prebble said: “It’s a scandal for industry and for society and we must not let this happen to digital terrestrial television.”

Prebble also criticised the rules which currently prevent ITV from cross promoting its pay services, saying they should be relaxed to allow ITV to promote its digital platform. However he attacked the BBC for using license fee payers money to promote sports services only available to satellite viewers, saying: “It is an inappropriate way to spend the additional licence fee.”

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.co.uk

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