Apsattv
02-03-2008, 09:35 PM
From http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Blank-screens-warning-over-TV.3818719.jp
MILLIONS of viewers face being left with blank TV screens when the nation goes digital because the switchover has become a "recipe for confusion", it is claimed today.
Nearly half of all television sets sold in the first half of last year will be useless in the coming years unless residents pay for a set-top box or the set is converted.
Although the switchover has "genuine momentum" and is set to be complete by 2012, a third of the population still do not understand how to get ready for it and half of retail staff cannot tell customers what equipment to buy because they don't know themselves. There are also warnings the Government could end up with £250m of surplus licence fee cash to pay for a help scheme which people don't actually need.
The findings in a National Audit Office report prompted concerns from Edward Leigh, chairman of Government spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee. "Nearly a third of the population has no idea what to do to continue watching television after the analogue switch off," he said. "At the same time, in the first seven months of 2007, 47 per cent of all televisions sold were still analogue.
"This is a recipe for confusion. It certainly suggests that a lot of screens will go blank after switchover."
He said the scheme for indicating digitals TVs with a ticked label was a "mystery" to many viewers and shop staff, and Government department needed to do more to make the public aware analogue television was ending.
Digital services can be received through a set-top box and aerial (such as Freeview), integral digital TV set, satellite, cable or broadband. About 85 per cent of households have already converted their main TV set, leaving 3.7 million households yet to make the switch.
The Government has also earmarked £603m of licence fee payers' money for a BBC-administered help scheme aimed at the elderly and disabled, but there are warnings the amount needed may only be £350m, prompting concerns about how the excess will be spent.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said it was too early to know if the budget for helping people switch over was too big, and said several retailers had agreed to phase out the sale of analogue sets – unless bundled with a digital receiver – in the 12 months before switchover.
MILLIONS of viewers face being left with blank TV screens when the nation goes digital because the switchover has become a "recipe for confusion", it is claimed today.
Nearly half of all television sets sold in the first half of last year will be useless in the coming years unless residents pay for a set-top box or the set is converted.
Although the switchover has "genuine momentum" and is set to be complete by 2012, a third of the population still do not understand how to get ready for it and half of retail staff cannot tell customers what equipment to buy because they don't know themselves. There are also warnings the Government could end up with £250m of surplus licence fee cash to pay for a help scheme which people don't actually need.
The findings in a National Audit Office report prompted concerns from Edward Leigh, chairman of Government spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee. "Nearly a third of the population has no idea what to do to continue watching television after the analogue switch off," he said. "At the same time, in the first seven months of 2007, 47 per cent of all televisions sold were still analogue.
"This is a recipe for confusion. It certainly suggests that a lot of screens will go blank after switchover."
He said the scheme for indicating digitals TVs with a ticked label was a "mystery" to many viewers and shop staff, and Government department needed to do more to make the public aware analogue television was ending.
Digital services can be received through a set-top box and aerial (such as Freeview), integral digital TV set, satellite, cable or broadband. About 85 per cent of households have already converted their main TV set, leaving 3.7 million households yet to make the switch.
The Government has also earmarked £603m of licence fee payers' money for a BBC-administered help scheme aimed at the elderly and disabled, but there are warnings the amount needed may only be £350m, prompting concerns about how the excess will be spent.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said it was too early to know if the budget for helping people switch over was too big, and said several retailers had agreed to phase out the sale of analogue sets – unless bundled with a digital receiver – in the 12 months before switchover.