LONDON (Brand Republic) - The BBC is looking at ways to help the government speed up the switch from analogue to digital TV, which could include the offer of subsidised set-top boxes.
BBC director general Greg Dyke yesterday met with a Commons select committee to discuss the government鈥檚 plans for an analogue switch-off between 2006 and 2010.
It is widely regarded in the industry that the government is not doing enough to encourage the take-up of digital services. Currently 30% or 6m UK homes have digital services. To warrant a switch-off of the analogue signal by 2010, 98% of UK homes must be receiving digital services.
It is believed that around 30% of the UK are reluctant to subscribe to digital services and the only way to encourage them is to subsidise the cost of the equipment needed to receive the signal.
The corporation, which has already committed more than £430m to its digital operation, believes that its new offering will attract viewers to digital services. The BBC vehemently denies that Dyke is considering using licence-fee payer鈥檚 money to subsidise the cost of equipment.
The UK鈥檚 most popular and longest-running digital services, BSkyB and ONdigital, have given away set-top boxes to encourage the take-up of their services, but customers are then tied to monthly subscription costs.
Viewers are currently unable to acquire set-top boxes which allow them to view only free-to-air channels such as the BBC鈥檚 proposed BBC3 and BBC4.