Digital UK bullish on Borders analogue TV switch-off

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, May 11, 2008

THE first closedown of an analogue TV transmitter gives important lessons for the forthcoming switch-off in the Scottish Borders, the executive responsible for the UK's digital transfer has said.

David Scott, head of the switchover taskforce Digital UK, told the Sunday Herald that last October's trial run in Whitehaven, a seaside town in Cumbria, led to changes to plans for the first region-wide transfer to digital in the Border TV region.

In six months' time viewers in southern Scotland and northern England who receive Borders TV will be the fi rst in the UK to have their analogue television signal turned off and be moved entirely to digital.

The process will then be rolled out across the rest of the UK, with the programme due to be completed in 2012.

But concerns have emerged in recent months that elderly and vulnerable Borderers will not have not yet received enough information about the transfer, and will be caught out when the analogue signal is turned off in six months time.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald, Scott said Digital UK was about to step up its marketing drive to make sure nobody slipped through the net. He said the time taken to switch over fully would drop from 28 days to 14 days to make the process clearer.

"We are achieving all of our targets, so the programme is right on track. What we have found from people is that even if they don't understand the process themselves, they are comfortable with it because someone in their family does understand, " he said.

He said banners had this week appeared on TV screens throughout the Borders advising viewers to upgrade to digital-ready sets, and that these banners would grow in size as the switchover came closer. He said that booklets were also being posted to each of the 250,000 viewers in the Borders area and that the number of people in the Borders who had already switched to digital television was more than 87per cent.

Scott said he was concerned that some retailers in the area were still selling analogue televisions without offering the correct advice about the digital switchover.

Digital UK had just begun a "mystery shopper" scheme to ensure people were not being misinformed, he added.

Police constable John Lennon, a community officer based in Galashiels, said he was afraid that the message was not getting through to too many old and vulnerable people in the Borders area. He said: "A lot of the groups I work with are still confused about the whole process. They think it will not happen to them."