[tv-rsl-l] Spectrum for local and community TV

[Steve Buckley]

The following report from the Guardian on the first public speech from the 
new Broadcasting Minister, Lord McIntosh. The future of local and community 
television depends on allocation of spectrum  from the current analogue TV 
bands. Suggestions for use of the analogue TV spectrum can be sent to Lord 
McIntosh at <mcintoshar at parliament.uk> or <andrew.mcintosh at culture.gsi.gov.uk>

///

Government unsure of uses for analogue signal

Matt Wells
Tuesday June 17, 2003
The Guardian

New broadcasting minister Lord McIntosh today admitted the government was 
unclear about the potential future uses of the analogue television signal.

Attempting to justify the decision to press ahead with the UK's conversion 
to digital TV, he conceded it was "premature" to predict the full range of 
benefits the freed-up spectrum would provide.

Apart from the financial benefit to the Treasury from spectrum auctions, he 
was only able to cite the ability to broadcast clear TV pictures to mobile 
receivers - dubbed "video Walkmans" - as one of the possible future uses of 
the analogue spectrum.

Lord McIntosh, making his first appearance as broadcasting minister since 
Kim Howells moved to the department of transport in last week's reshuffle, 
told the Westminster Media Forum that moving from analogue to digital would 
be a "win-win" situation.

Answering the suggestion that analogue TV could continue to exist alongside 
digital, he said switch-over would bring benefits that would not otherwise 
have been achievable.

"More TV services can be put into less spectrum and this frees up valuable 
frequencies for even more TV services and other uses," Lord McIntosh said.

"The opportunity to work the spectrum even harder will provide a major 
boost to the economy and, hopefully, [create] jobs in the spectrum-using 
industries."

However, he added: "It might be premature to be definitive about the likely 
uses for the freed-up spectrum given the current pace at which markets and 
technologies are moving."

Lord McIntosh said the 41% of households that had already "gone digital" 
were clear about the benefits - interactive TV, greater choice of channels, 
personal video recorders, email, clearer subtitling and better picture 
quality.

He also welcomed the falling cost of Freeview boxes and suggested cost was 
"no longer an issue" in driving digital take-up.

However, he admitted the case for digital television had not been made 
fully. "So many benefits, yet so many unconvinced people," he said.

The minister conceded most TV sets sold still use analogue technology but 
said he could not force manufacturers to sell digital-only sets without a 
European Union directive.

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Lord McIntosh agreed the 
plans to switch off the analogue television signal could cause confusion.

The government intends to convert the country region by region between 2006 
and 2010 but would only switch off the analogue signal when more than 95% 
of the population in a given area has access to digital TV.

Lord McIntosh said this could be problematic for people living in areas 
where there is an overlap between different transmitters.

"It could be more confusing, particularly for people who live in the 
borders [of transmitter areas], but we hope it will be switched over in a 
short time," he said.

In his speech, the minister called for views about whether there should be 
minimum specifications for set-top boxes or whether cheap, basic boxes 
should be available to address the problem of converting additional TV sets 
to digital TV.

"Do we want all the boxes to be able to cope with subtitles, teletext, 
interactivity? Or do we agree that, to ensure everyone can find a secondary 
set or a VCR, some boxes could just do the basic conversion job?" Lord 
McIntosh said.



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            steve at commedia.org.uk
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         http://www.commedia.org.uk
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