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You are here: Home > Current Topics > Wanna Argument? > Digital TV: Broadcast Heaven or Dumbed-Down Hell? > Has Britain got digital fever? |
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Wanna Argument?Digital TV: Broadcast Heaven or Dumbed-Down Hell?Has Britain got digital fever?
How do you switch this thing on? TV can be confusing. © iStock.com Read the industry news and you get the impression that digital TV is a huge UK success story. At least half of all British households have one or more digital TV sets. The TV industry regulator, Ofcom, estimates that just by leaving the market to itself, digital TV could achieve market penetration levels of between 75 and 85% by 2010. This is judged to be one of the most successful market-led technologies ever. But there appears to be some confusion amongst consumers about what digital TV is all about. Industry research from 2002 suggested that most people think that digital TV means pay-TV. Less than one third of respondents were aware that the five existing terrestrial TV channels will continue to be available free-to-view via digital TV. Industry research indicates that consumers aren't particularly interested in getting more channels on their TVs, if the quality of the programmes shown suffers. They are keen on watching one or two premium channels, but don't want them 'bundled' together with low quality output. Fascinatingly, consumers are portrayed as being poorly educated in their understanding of digital TV: some have digital, but do not know they have it; others do not have it, but think that they do (because their TV set has digital sound) - a confused picture indeed. |
