Digital switchover and the role of the new BBC services in digital television take-up

Convergence

Volumn 11, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 57-74

  Iosifidis, Petros ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS   (Greece)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33749453266     PISSN: 13548565     EISSN: 17487382     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/135485650501100305     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. BIPE, Digital Switchover in Broadcasting, Study for the European Commission, Directorate General Information Society (Brussels: 12 April 2002), p. 2
2. Jeremy Klein, Simon Karger and Kay Sinclair, Attitudes to Digital Switchover: The Impact of Digital Switchover on Consumer Adoption of Digital Television (The Generics Group in Association with Ipsos UK, 30 March 2004), pp. 8, 14
3. Screen Digest, Observatory of Public Service Broadcasting in Europe, Report by the Instituto Italiano per I'lndustria Culturale, May 2004 (a summary can be downloaded at: www.lombardiacultura.it/osservatorio/libreria/ lslCult%20Screen%20Digest%20br (accessed 22 June 2004)
4. Petros losifidis, Jeanette Steemers and Mark Wheeler, European Television Industries (London: British Film Institute, 2005), p. 115
5. As early as 2001 the UK was storming ahead in Europe's transition to digital television, as 37 per cent of UK households had DTV compared to a European average of 16.3 per cent at the time (Strategy Analytics, 2002)
6. BIPE (2002)
7. Tessa Jowell, Digital Switchover: The Next Steps, Ministerial Written Statement (London: 19 May 2004)
8. The Digital Television Action Plan was formulated by the government in partnership with stakeholders who have an interest in DTV. These include broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers, platform operators and consumer groups. Its objective was 'to ensure that the criteria set for switchover are met so that Ministers can, if they so choose, take the decision to proceed to full switchover by ordering the switching off of analogue terrestrial transmission'. The Action Plan was first published in December 2001, and was updated regularly until December 2004 when it was replaced by SwitchCo, the organisation which will coordinate the country's switchover to DTV. See Digital Television Action Plan, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, at www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk (accessed February 2005)
9. In late 2003 the two groups decided to merge their operations in a £2.6 billion deal
10. David Neal, 'ITV Digital: Lessons to be Learned', IT Week (8 May 2002) at www.itweek.co.uk/print/it/1131588 (accessed February 2005)
11. NTL has now come out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA
12. Office of Communications (Ofcom), Digital Television Update - Q1 2004, at www.google.com/search?hl = en&ie = ISO-8859-1&q = Digital+Television+Upda te+-+Q1+2004, 2 June 2004b (accessed June 2004)
13. James Purnell, 'It's not all Over for the Digital Switchover', Financial Times (Creative Business), 16 October 2001, p. 3
14. Klein, Karger and Sinclair, p. 14
15. Matt Wells, 'Digital TV at Turning Point as Converts Top 50%', The Guardian, 17 December 2003
16. BIPE (2002), p. 11
17. In Europe, although the switchover is a prime objective of the EU's e-Europe action plan, it is only Berlin which has completed the switchover from traditional terrestrial television to DTT. Still, digital switchover in the whole of Germany is not expected before 2010. In Sweden the switchover to digital television is scheduled for February 2008, while the Finish government has proposed that all television broadcasting in the country be digital as of August 2007. Some countries, like Italy, have set an even more ambitious (and perhaps unrealistic) switch-off date of December 2006 (Member States' switchover plans are available at: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/ecomm/ highlights/ current_spotlights/switchover/national_swo_plans/index_en.htm (accessed November 2004)
18. Office of Communications (Ofcom), Progress Towards Digital Television Switchover (April 2004a.)
19. Gautam Malkani, 'Let's Join the Big Free-for-all,' Financial Times (Creative Business), 27 April 2004, p. 11
20. Ofcom (2004a)
21. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Progress Towards Achieving Digital Switchover, Report to the Government (London: April 2004), pp. 2, 5
22. Ofcom (2004b), p. 9
23. BBC (2004), p. 1
24. ADSL (Asymetric Digital Subscriber Lines) represents another DTV network but it is (and is likely to remain) a niche delivery platform
25. Ofcom (2004b)
26. Source Ofcom (2004b)
27. Michael Starks, 'Digital Television: The Lesson from Watership Down', speech given at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference, London, 28 November 2001
28. Oliver & Ohlbaum, An Assessment of the Market Impact of the BBC's Digital TV Services, Report for the BBC's submission to the DCMS Review (Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates Ltd, March 2004)
29. Quest Survey, Multichannel Quarterly, Q2 2003, at www.itc.org.uk/uploads/ ITC_Multichannel_Quarterly_-_Q2_2003.doc (London: ITC, 2003) (accessed December 2003)
30. Oliver & Ohlbaum, p. 9
31. Paul Robinson, 'How About a Slice of the Pie, Sky?' Financial Times (Creative Business), 11 May 2004, p. 4
32. Saeed Shah, 'BSkyB Tightens Grip with Launch of Free-to-air Satellite Service', The Independent (10 June 2004)
33. Source: BskyB; Reuters
34. BARB; Oliver & Ohlbaum analysis, p. 3
35. Independent Review of the BBC's Digital Services, The Barwise Report into BBC3, BBC4, CBeebies and CBBC, at www.culture.gov.uk/global/publications/ archive_2004/ review_bbc_digital_tv_services +.htm (October 2004), p. 6 (accessed December 2004)
36. Greg Dyke, MacTaggert Lecture 2000, www.bbc.co.uk/info/news/news264.htm (accessed August 2004)
37. Barry Cox, 'The Reformation of the BBC', The Guardian, http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/comment/0%2C7493%2C888678%2C00.html (4 February 2003)
38. John Heilemann, 'Can the BBC Be Saved?' www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/ bbc.html (March 1994)
39. Report of the Committee on Financing the BBC - The Peacock Report, at www.bopcris.ac.uk/bopall/ref19676.html (London, HMSO, 1985)
40. Wells (2004)
41. Office of Communications (Ofcom), Review of Public Service Broadcasting, www.ofcom.org.uk/codes_guidelines/broadcasting/tv/psb_review (May 2004c), accessed June 2004