UK Government: Digital Switchover Won't Affect Olympics

[Fiona]

UK government plans for completing a national switch-off of analogue television by 2012, which were set to be announced today, have provoked fears that some viewers could be prevented from watching coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games which are to be hosted by London.

Protests were led by opposition members of parliament, with John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the cross-party House of Commons culture committee, saying: ‘If analogue switch-off doesn’t work there are going to be an awful lot of angry people out there who find they are not going to be able to watch the Olympics.’

The committee plans to debate the issue later this autumn.

A total of 38 per cent of the UK’s television homes have yet to be converted to digital and the government was today expected to announce a programme of practical and financial support for elderly and disabled viewers who might not be able to afford to covert to digital television.

Tessa Jowell, the country’s culture secretary, was expected to say today that the switch to digital is ‘no longer a probability, it’s a certainty,’ and that it would leave the UK with ‘a legacy of more choice for people than anywhere else in the world.’

The Department of Culture Media and Sport insisted that the timetable for the switch-over could be achieved without disruption to the viewing public during the Olympics.

Sportcal.com