Ofcom has today published its report on digital switchover, looking at moving from analogue to digital.
Ofcom put digital penetration at 50.2% of households, with satellite making up 28.9%, cable 9.1% and Freeview 12.2%.
The report certainly makes for interesting reading, and it makes 30 main findings and recommendations. I didn’t know that Berlin switched off Analogue TV signals in August last year. Closer reading of that example shows that the scale was not as big as you might think, since only six per cent of Berlin households relied on analogue terrestrial prior to switchover. Slightly less than the current 50% of UK households.
I think that the key thing here is that there are vast numbers of secondary and tertiary videos and TVs in households up and down the country. These are suddenly going to be rendered useless beyond vehicles for video and DVD. That’s why the household penetration figure is somewhat misleading. Ofcom themselves say that as many as 35 million TVs will still be analogue in 2010, and let’s face it, if I walk down to Dixons today, the only Integrated Digital Televisions I’ll see will be big widescreen ones, not portables. A key point made in the report is that the number of TVs sold with analogue tuners outstrips the number of digital receivers.
The other major point regarding secondary devices is that of video recorders – you need a tuner for your telly and another for your VCR if you want to watch one channel and record another. How many boxes do you want around your TV? Suddenly a thirty quid purchase of a low cost DTT tuner has jumped considerably. Ofcom talks about forthcoming DTT PVRs which is fine, but somewhat more expensive than VCRs (which can cost as little as 50-60 pounds at the moment).
Ofcom recognise that a clear timetable needs to be put in place to facilitate a switchover, but which government is going to be willing to do this. They speak of free to air satellite being the only option for many people, but I’d suggest that they’re going to need to do more than make public service broadcasters available free via Digital Satellite. What about people who live in flats in non DTT areas who aren’t allowed to put up dishes according to their lease agreements. Or students in halls of residence. Or that part of middle England who still consider satellite dishes as unsightly (even if they’re willing to accept TV aerials on their roofs).
I’m curious about why Ofcom want “SwitchCo” to be formed to oversee the whole switchover. Couldn’t a department within Ofcom be set up to carry this out? Why do they want a separate organisation to be formed? Could it be that if it all goes horribly wrong, it’s not their fault?
I think that the biggest question which to a certain extent remains unanswered, is what happens with all the spectrum that’s freed up? You can never have too much spectrum available, that’s for sure.
But the key paragraph in the report is 6.26 which highlights the Catch 22 of being unable to increase DTT coverage without switching off analogue first.