Countdown to switchoff

It's only been ten days since the first area of the UK switched off its analogue television signal in Whitehaven, Cumbria - though I suspect that they can't have been too happy that it was a BBC Channel which is paid for by law! By the middle of November, the other four terrestrial channels will also switch off, and a British DVB aka Freeview box will become necessary to view any television whatsoever in the town.

The rest of the country has up to four years of watching terrestrial whilst recording digital before it has to follow Whitehaven's example. I've been enjoying Freeview since 2005, replacing that box at the start of 2007. It's good to see that Digital UK, the organisation created to oversee the changeover, has stopped being economical with the truth about being able to run your VCR into the ground if you wish to, albeit recording a single digital stream like 1990s cable or satellite TV. Until this year, its representatives had merely told everyone to run out and buy a shiny new digital recorder of any kind. I suspect VCRs were either still working or too small to be noticed when fly-tipped, though I saw my first widescreen CRT television dumped on the street last week.

So, the future - for those not willing to pay Rupert Murdoch or Richard Branson for satellite or cable - began on October 17th. Those who scoffed at ITV for launching three new channels were made to eat their words as the intention to carry on with normal programming but provide a home for ad-supported sports coverage became clearest this year with Formula One, the Champions' League soccer matches shared with Sky and the Rugby World Cup. The BBC has been criticised for its digital output due to the taxable nature of its funding but as usual, none of the criticisms are totally right or wrong, merely a matter of age and taste.

Since the BBC has a decade's worth of guaranteed funding to 2015 and is a 60 year old British institution, it will go nowhere. As long as Dr Who and dance show fans are catered to, it will change little on the outside. The real worry is when David Attenborough retires...