SMITH TALKS UP DIGITAL TAKE-UP

SPEAKING at the Royal Television Society’s (RTS) Autumn conference Culture Secretary Chris Smith said the take-up of digital was already exceeding expectations, and that the target date for digital switch-over of 2006-2010 was still realistic.
Smith said: “Few would dispute the impact that television had on the last century. The advent of digital now takes this further, and the information and entertainment explosion that is triggering will touch the lives of us all.”
Smith attempted to counter the ‘digital myths’ that are holding some people back from signing up. He reassured those who were on the verge of going digital that many people can already receive digital TV through an ordinary television aerial, and that digital viewers will be able to get a much wider range of programmes from the BBC and ITV. They will also not have to take out a subscription in order to get a digital benefit.
“The Government wants to see the benefits of greater choice and better quality in TV available to the wildest number as quickly as is practicable”, Smith continued. “Digital switch-over will, as we have already said, depend on two tests: that viewers who now receive the main free-to-view channels must be able to do so digitally; and that everyone can afford to make the switch. But we have already made astonishing progress in a very short period of time, and I look forward to seeing further progress in the near future."