Digital switchover 'a mystery'

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Many viewers do not understand the implications of digital switchover, despite the launch of a £200 million public information campaign featuring Little Britain star Matt Lucas two years ago.

The Digital Tick label, used to identify TVs that will work after switchover, is still "a mystery" to many retailers and consumers alike, the Parliamentary report found.

It says that "consumers have not been well-served" by the voluntary labelling scheme, introduced almost four years ago, while "many sales staff are still not able to explain properly what the logo means".

Almost half of the TVs sold in the first seven months of 2007 were analogue sets, even though these sets will not receive a signal after switchover without their owners paying for extra equipment.

The report also criticised the Government for "not taking adequate safeguards to secure value for money" in the digital conversion scheme.

It paid £803 million of licence fee cash to the BBC to deliver digital switchover, without ensuring proper accountability for the way the money is spent or stating exactly how the money should be used, according to the report.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has given the BBC responsibility for funding the public information campaign and delivering a digital help scheme.

But the report from the Parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts says the Government departments have no means of holding the BBC to account.

The report did find that the switchover timetable, which is taking place region-by-region until 2012, was on track.