Whitehaven Gets Ready For Digital Switchover
Coming 100 days before the digital switchover, new research reveals that all households in the lead area of Whitehaven, Cumbria, are intending to convert to digital TV.
Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK, the organisation implementing switchover, welcomed the findings but warned residents not to leave it too late.
Ennals said: “It’s good news that everyone we spoke to said they were intending to convert to digital. However, we also found that over a third (34%) of households yet to convert are planning to convert ‘at and around switchover’, which increases the risk of problems and a further third have still to decide. Too many people converting late would put a strain on suppliers of equipment, installers and other sources of support.”
The research, looking at Whitehaven’s state of readiness for switchover, also found that 96% of the Whitehaven respondents were aware of switchover, whilst 76% of households have already converted to digital television.
Ennals added: “To avoid the risk of being left with a temporary blank screen, I’d urge people to make preparations in good time before analogue signals are turned off. The first digital signals are available from next month when Five begins broadcasting in the area, so there’s no need to wait. If too many people leave it to the last minute, they may be disappointed and simply not be able to get their TVs converted in time.”
The two stage process for 25,000 homes in Whitehaven begins on October 17, when the analogue BBC Two signal will be turned off and the initial group of Freeview digital channels will be broadcast for the first time (see Digital Switchover Gets October Start Date).
Four weeks later, on November 14, the remaining analogue channels will cease transmission and the full line up of 20 free-to-air digital channels will become available.
As the countdown gets closer Digital UK is stepping up its communications campaign. From later this month, every household will receive a 20-page guide called It’s time to switch and on-screen reminder captions will be broadcast on analogue channels.
In June, Ofcom’s latest Digital Progress Report found that more than 80% of households in the UK now receive digital television services on their primary set, with almost 82% of homes receiving multi-channel TV at the end of Q1 2007 (see Digital TV Penetration In The UK Exceeds 80%).
Digital UK: www.digitaluk.co.uk