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The technological challenges in achieving analogue switch-off will be no small feat, with 6,000 analogue receivers to dismantle as well as 1,000 old digital receivers to come out and 5,000 digital transmitters to be erected, all while maintaining existing services, according to Alan Watson, consultant to NTL Broadcast. He said, “[As for] which transmission sites will be used and how many…there is absolutely nothing set in stone about the transmission network as we speak.” Jim Egan, head of strategy development at Ofcom, added that the aim was to convert 98.5% of multiplexes to digital which will require 280 sites to be upgraded but he admitted that “You can’t make six multiplexes available to everyone [via DTT], that’s simply not possible.”
Allan Williams, senior policy advisor of Which?, formerly known as the Consumer Association, said the main problem was communicating the case for switch-off to the consumer to encourage buy-in. “The benefits of digital TV are clear but the benefits of switchover are far less clear…. In fact about 55% of the public are opposed to switch-off,” he said.
A session on 'When to invest?' looked at the prospects afforded by DTT to commercial channels. When asked whether it was worth paying in excess of £3m for carriage on the Freeview platform, Jon James, commercial director of Flextech Television and Simon Brown, vice-president of research and planning at MTV Networks UK and Ireland agreed the move, initially a strategic one, had reaped real rewards. MTV broadcasts The Music Factory (TMF) a music channel, on Freeview while Flextech broadcasts UK Bright Ideas and FTN over the platform as well as selling capacity to third parties such as Thomas Cook TV. Brown said, “If you look at all of the channels on there, they’re aimed at over 35s or kids so we thought there was a real opportunity we could exploit. If you look at the DTT audience share, it’s six times larger than that over a pay-TV platform.”
Due to zapper box limitations and capacity constraints, Freeview does not have a return path so its iTV services are limited to information on demand. The panel all agreed that the development of a return path was not a priority for Freeview, with Paul Robinson, an independent media consultant, highly sceptical of the iTV phenomenon. “With Sky there is absolutely not a lot of red button use,” he said. “People are risk-averse when it comes to using it…. Freeview’s lack of a return path isn’t a big issue; everyone is happy to use the old-fashioned telephone or mobile.”
Allan Williams, senior policy advisor of Which?, formerly known as the Consumer Association, said the main problem was communicating the case for switch-off to the consumer to encourage buy-in. “The benefits of digital TV are clear but the benefits of switchover are far less clear…. In fact about 55% of the public are opposed to switch-off,” he said.
A session on 'When to invest?' looked at the prospects afforded by DTT to commercial channels. When asked whether it was worth paying in excess of £3m for carriage on the Freeview platform, Jon James, commercial director of Flextech Television and Simon Brown, vice-president of research and planning at MTV Networks UK and Ireland agreed the move, initially a strategic one, had reaped real rewards. MTV broadcasts The Music Factory (TMF) a music channel, on Freeview while Flextech broadcasts UK Bright Ideas and FTN over the platform as well as selling capacity to third parties such as Thomas Cook TV. Brown said, “If you look at all of the channels on there, they’re aimed at over 35s or kids so we thought there was a real opportunity we could exploit. If you look at the DTT audience share, it’s six times larger than that over a pay-TV platform.”
Due to zapper box limitations and capacity constraints, Freeview does not have a return path so its iTV services are limited to information on demand. The panel all agreed that the development of a return path was not a priority for Freeview, with Paul Robinson, an independent media consultant, highly sceptical of the iTV phenomenon. “With Sky there is absolutely not a lot of red button use,” he said. “People are risk-averse when it comes to using it…. Freeview’s lack of a return path isn’t a big issue; everyone is happy to use the old-fashioned telephone or mobile.”