Non-digital TV could be out of the picture

THOUSANDS of people without digital TV could be left with no picture when the UK's Digital Action Plan comes into effect. The Government wants to switch off the analogue TV signal between 2006 and 2010 but has made no provision for Channel Islanders. Phil Rigg, chairman of TV aerial and Sky Digital TV supplier Aerials and Antennae Digital Systems Ltd, is so concerned that he has set up the Channel Islands Digital Broadcast Group to lobby for local provision. He has written to the policy adviser at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and to Guernsey's Broadcasting Committee, but said nothing had been done to help islanders without digital TV. 'We currently receive only the four analogue terrestrial channels via a low-reliability terrestrial transmission link that is subject to continuous atmospheric interference. 'We have no analogue Channel 5, no freeview digital terrestrial television, no digital or analogue cable TV and no digital audio broadcasting,' he said. 'The Government plans to switch off the analogue TV signals to the Channel Islands at some date to be chosen by it. 'There is no part in the Digital Action Plan that deals with provision for digital TV for the Channel Islands. 'They have made no mention nor even acknowledged the need to formulate a corresponding plan to switch on suitable replacement digital signals to the Channel Islands.' Mr Rigg said that around 200,000 analogue TVs, portable TVs and video recorders in the Channel Islands would become obsolete when the analogue system was switched off. The Government has approved licence-fee increases for 2003 to 2008 to help pay for the digital public service broadcasting roll-out. Mr Rigg believed that as islanders were required by law to pay a £120 licence fee, there should be a plan and dates for provision of digital TV for the Channel Islands. 'We would certainly not want to reach analogue switch-off, having helped fund digital roll-out throughout the entire UK, only to find we have been abandoned to a single monopolistic provider in the form of BSkyB. 'We would then have to pay for equipment and installation and a monthly fee to receive public-service broadcasting in addition to paying the annual licence fee.' Mr Rigg said he had contacted the Broadcasting Committee to ask what was being done locally. 'I offered my assistance to the States a year ago and I got a letter back saying that it's being dealt with and someone would call me. 'No one called. My impression is that the States is doing nothing and the UK is doing nothing because we are a difficult problem to solve.' He said the plan to switch off the analogue system was motivated by money. 'The Government is trying to stimulate broadcasters, companies like Sky and cable companies, to motivate them into making digital signals available as quickly as possible and to reclaim the airwaves and sell off those parts of the spectrum for other services, like mobile telecommunications, for tens of billions of pounds.' Broadcasting Committee president Dave Barrett said the islands were in the same position as many viewers on the UK's south coast. 'The switch-off isn't planned for some years and the UK is back-pedalling on when it's going to happen,' he said. He denied that nothing was being done. 'We have been negotiating for some time, first with ITV Digital and since then with the BBC, who took on their frequencies. 'No one is keener than us to go to the digital system but it's just not on the cards yet. 'The committee has been working for some years, but it's in the hands of the UK Government, the BBC and commercial TV companies to provide it.'