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Digital TV: Broadcast Heaven or Dumbed-Down Hell?

What's driving the UK's take-up of digital TV?

A number of factors are involved:

1. Political
   The Government has set an analogue (the existing standard method for broadcasting TV signals) switch-off target date of 2010. There is considerable work going on preparing the TV industry for full digitisation. In addition, the Government hopes to generate revenue from selling off the analogue broadcasting spectrum that TV used to occupy.
2. Economic
   There has been considerable investment in the industry by the cable companies (Telewest and NTL) and the major digital broadcaster (BSkyB).
3. Technological
   As a result of large capital investment in the industry, the UK was able to launch the first digital terrestrial TV service (in November 1998) and has become the first country to upgrade its satellite services to be fully digital.
4. Cultural
   The British watch more television than most of their European counterparts. On average, UK households watch more than 3.5 hours per day, compared to a European average of 3 hours. It's estimated that only Spanish and Italians watch more than people in the UK, with both exceeding 4 hours of TV per day. It comes as no surprise, perhaps, that most TV is watched in the US, with estimates of nearly 4.5 hours viewed per day.

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