According to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, 2012 is likely to be a more realistic date and culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, will make a statement in the House of Commons later today.
The announcement is a major reversal on the New Labour pledge set by former culture secretary, Chris Smith, in 1999, who recommended that the switch-over should be complete by 2010.
It is understood that today's statement will announce that Ofcom's independent panel will look at the effects of an analogue switch-off on vulnerable sections of society, such as the poor and the elderly, who can not afford £150 for a Freeview box.
In a speech last month, Mark Thompson, the BBC's new director-general, said that he did not believe that a 2010 date was achievable.
In its digital switch-over report, submitted to the DCMS two months ago, the BBC warned the government that the analogue switch-off would be impossible unless it took action to accelerate the public's conversion from analogue to digital TV sets.
Andy Duncan, now Channel 4 chief executive, called for the government to commit to a significant marketing initiative to educate viewers when he was in his previous job as director of marketing and communications at the BBC.
However, the campaign, which is understood to have been priced at around £300m, was dropped after the DCMS was advised by the Treasury that funding would not be made available.
At the end of this year, two villages in Wales will lose their analogue service as part of the first experiments into digital TV switch-over.
Earlier this month, the government revealed that it would announce a switch-off date for analogue radio this year, meaning that 100m radios will become obsolete.
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