Scottish borders to be digital guinea pig

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Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Scottish borders are to lose their normal TV service after media watchdog Ofcom earmarked the region as the first in Britain to have its analogue signal switched off completely.
According to broadcasting sources, the draft versions of the new digital licences that will cover the period when the government will begin switching off the analogue terrestrial television signal indicate that the sparsely populated region will be the guinea pig for the rest of the country.

It means that the regular over-the-air analogue services will be phased out and only those who are connected to digital services on satellite, cable or the terestrial digital service, Freeview will be able to watch TV.

The government has vowed not to switch off the analogue network until the majority of homes have upgraded to digital, but it will be anxiously using the Borders region to find out what level of uptake is politically acceptable.

Some think it will not switch off until more than 95% of the region has upgraded but that it will use a "cattle-prod" approach by switching off one channel - say BBC2 or Channel 4 - first to persuade the final rump of analogue viewers to switch before it closes down analogue completely.

The area - which covers the western area of the British Isles from the north of the Lake District in England to southern Scotland and also includes the Isle of Man - has a population of just 450,000 and includes just one major city, Carlisle.

Several areas had previously been mooted as potential test beds for the switchover, including the Channel Islands and south London.

The border region has almost certainly been chosen as the first to be pencilled in for switchover because of its small population and the fact that it is covered by distinct transmitters that don't "bleed" into other regions.

The Channel islands and the Isle of Man have also been considered for similar reasons.

But it will present broadcasters and the regulator with substantial challenges in that it is relatively poor and its predominantly rural nature means digital reception of the Freeview signal is patchy at best.

Broadcasters, and the government, hope the imminent launch of a "freesat" service from BSkyB, which will offer 150 channels for a one-off payment of around £150, will persuade those who cannot receive Freeview to upgrade to digital.

The BBC is also talking to manufacturers and other broadcasters about launching its own "freesat" service. And the fact that the terrestrial signal is itself fairly weak in some rural areas will persuade households to convert to digital.

But with the government ruling out the idea of subsidising boxes for larger swathes of the population, it remains to be seen how the residents of the border region will respond to being told they need to go out and buy new equipment to continue watching television.

There are also likely to be significant difficulties in ensuring that all households have converted second and third sets and retuned their video recorders prior to switchover.

Over half of all households have already converted to digital TV, through Sky, cable or Freeview.