A new report indicates DCMS plans to turn off terrestrial TV signals are moving too fast.
According to an article in The Observer, Matthew Horsman, an independent analyst and former MD of Mediatique, will suggest more than 10 million people could lose access to television if the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) continues its move towards internet-only streaming.
Next year, the DCMS will decide when to switch off the UK’s TV transmitters, informed by data from Exeter University predicting 95 per cent of UK homes will be watching TV online by 2040, with just 1.4 million people predicted to still depend on terrestrial broadcasts. Amid worries that older people or those from lower socio-economic backgrounds will be adversely affected, Ofcom has insisted the decision must be taken early in order to “manage an inclusive transition”.
Horsman’s data points to the figures being higher, a view shared by The Digital Poverty Alliance, a campaign group concerned about digital exclusion. It suggests almost 20 per cent of households will be either unable or unwilling to pay. The Alliance’s CEO, Elizabeth Anderson, said, “You can build all the high-speed fibre that you want, but that tends to be more expensive than social tariff broadband, so people can’t afford to take that up.”
Horsman’s report indicates an early switch-off could commercial public service broadcasters around £768 million in ad revenue, as well as posing a threat to universality and eroding justification for the licence fee. He believes a slimmed-down network, from six to three “muxes” would reduce transmission costs and enable broadcast TV to continue to 2045. The report was funded by Arqiva but Horsman said it has nothing to do with protecting its interests.
The expected switch-off date of 2035 comes a year after the end of current licence periods for ITV, Channel 4 and 5, with their contracts with Arqiva, which owns the transmitter network, also ending in 2034. The BBC begins its charter review in 2027, while its own transmitter contract ends in 2030. Tim Davie, the director general, said earlier this year that the corporation wanted the switchover to take place during the 2030s.
Speaking to The Observer, Horsman said, “I think the government’s being taken along by this consensus view of 2035 that the BBC is pushing and my fear is that we’re going down a route with blinders on, going hell bent for leather to get to an outcome.”
Shutting TV transmissions frees up spectrum space for the extension of NHS, Department of Work and Pension and some education services provision, and forms a critical part of the government’s plans. The PSB group, Future TV Taskforce believes the shift is already being led by consumers and that the delivery of TV over the internet will actually help narrow the digital divide.
