Yes it is indeed. If it was down to the richest area getting turned off first then the Channel Islands would win hands down!
The thing is though we are really behind. We don't have DAB, we don't have Freeview. Our ITV is still a dirty feed from Meridian. We only recently had our ITV station put on Sky and it dosen't even broadcast in widescreen.
I can't wait till 2009 when analogue gets cut off for us because maybe my parents might learn we can watch BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4 and five on digital tv!
Yes it is indeed. If it was down to the richest area getting turned off first then the Channel Islands would win hands down!
The thing is though we are really behind. We don't have DAB, we don't have Freeview. Our ITV is still a dirty feed from Meridian. We only recently had our ITV station put on Sky and it dosen't even broadcast in widescreen.
From the BBC News article, it does sound like the government has deliberately chosen an area with poor analogue reception to trial the digital switchover, presumably in the hope that by giving them a good digital signal they'll see anything as a huge improvement.
They can then tell us how wonderfully successful their trial has been and how everyone has embraced digital television with no complaints, and how it's fine to switch off analogue in three years time for millions so they can flog off the frequencies for some quick bucks.
I wonder if there would have been as little resistance to digital if they'd trialled it somewhere where everyone had perfect analogue reception of all five channels, or in a big student area where those in halls/flats with indoor aerials would be left with blank screens.
From the BBC News article, it does sound like the government has deliberately chosen an area with poor analogue reception to trial the digital switchover, presumably in the hope that by giving them a good digital signal they'll see anything as a huge improvement.
They can then tell us how wonderfully successful their trial has been and how everyone has embraced digital television with no complaints, and how it's fine to switch off analogue in three years time for millions so they can flog off the frequencies for some quick bucks.
The transmitter affected has clearly been chosen to cause as little disruption as possible, and the switchoff is going ahead only after all affected viewers have had free DTT equipment installed (and if rumour is to be believed, they've even got a TUTV subscription paid up for them for the duration of the trial).
Following the trial, they will ask the viewers whether or not the switchover should stay permanent, and if they agree they will get to keep their free DTT equipment.
With that in mind, of course the trial will be a success in the sense that the government will succeed in effecting the first permanent switchoff of an analogue transmitter which will to support the government's switchoff timetable, but it's ultimately an utterly meaningless publicity stunt.
If they had simply announced 12 months ago that this transmitter would be turned off for a trial period to see how people manage without analogue, that would be a far more effective trial. However, it would also be a complete disaster as screens go blank and the government would face pressure (which they probably couldn't resist) to push analogue switchoff back to a reasonable time frame.
No other transmitter switchoff in the country is going to be handled in this way, and although it will inevitably be considered a success, that's only because of the ridiculously preferential treatment which viewers served by that transmitter have received. It won't alter my opinion that the switchoff timetable is totally unrealistic - so unrealistic that I still don't believe for a second that it will actually happen.
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I wonder if there would have been as little resistance to digital if they'd trialled it somewhere where everyone had perfect analogue reception of all five channels, or in a big student area where those in halls/flats with indoor aerials would be left with blank screens.
Indeed, I wonder what would happen if they did a trial in the south east, or a trial without free equipment dangled like a carrot on a stick?
I would seriously love for every analogue TV transmitter to be turned off in 2008 - and then turned back on again 1 week later. That would bring the message home to the idiots who back the government's plan (as well as the downright imbaciles who claim switchoff should be brought forward from the plan, not pushed back from it) and make it abundantly clear that we are nowhere near a viable date for analogue switchoff, and going through with their plan is only going to cause significant inconvenience to too many people to ignore (although I note of course that the region by region plan is designed purely as a political damage limitation excercise with London being almost last to go - presumably by which time they hope more people will be ready - whilst Cumbria is the first - presumably because they hope, and probably hope right, that the national media will pay scant attention to it).
Incidentally, analogue switchoff and the south west TV region being in the first round was the subject (for at least the third time in a month) on a BBC Radio Devon phone last week. A caller directly asked the question 'why is the south west first when it's a poorer area with hopelessly incomplete DTT coverage when the south east which is a more affluent area with better coverage'?
The interviewee might as well have been a politician for the way he beautifully skated around the answer, pretending he had answered the question but actually completely ignored it.
'Well, it's, its' an incredibly...complicated technical process. We've decided to switch off region by region, with the borders being the first and the south west following a few months later. We, we have to make sure we don't.ah....don't interfere with our neighbours in europe, and also with, with neighbouring regions which of course down here would be H..ah HTV West. We have many, many transmitters, all of which need to be converted to...ah..to digital. So, uh it's a complicated thing to do'.
Seriously - that is more or less a word for word transcription of his answer. He didn't answer the question. The caller quickly retorted back with 'you didn't answer the ques...' before being cut off whilst the interviewer, no doubt being constrained by being a BBC employee, continued to ask less awkward questions.
