the great analogue switch-off

[alecstilleyedye]

we are now living with just the virgin media tv as all the analogue channels have been switched off.

has anyone actually been caught short without any tv as a result, or even been brave enough to use it as the chance to go without it altogether?

the latter would be tempting, but for the kids…

 

[Davidc]

we are now living with just the virgin media tv as all the analogue channels have been switched off.
…

How did you manage to miss all the publicity? Switchover here is in March and already we can't get away from it!

I'm told by a former colleague who's working on the switchover that the biggest cause of loss of TV is people failing to buy a digital box.

If you only have one TV surely anything worth having is on the Virgin system anyway?

Trouble is that whatever the technology it's the content that persuades people to watch TV, and at present that's so dire that in the DC house we're now down to 3 hours of non news TV a week!* More channels seems to correlate with less that's worth watching. Any lower and next time the TV set dies it might not be replaced......

*and as 1 1/2 hours is Strictly Come Dancing that puts me on 1 1/2 hours.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I don't know when the switchover is round here and I don't care much. I managed without a TV for over 30 years, it won't be much harsdship to go back to being without one. The last thing I watched was the Abu Dhabi grand prix a month or so ago.

 

[Plax]

They switched our signal off last month. My telly has in-built freeview in it. The signal is a lot better now, but I still haven't watched a full TV programme at all yet. We never used to be able to get digital here, but the novelty of tuning in the freeview has worn off now. If I hadn't had built in freeview I'd not have bothered buying a freeview box at all.

 

[marinyork]

In all honesty, I wish they'd stuck with the earlier time tables and done it earlier. 2009-2012 was way too late. We could have been wrapping up the final transmitters. I think that the earlier date would have been achievable and not being in the distant future focused minds a bit more about scrutinising things like the digital dividend.

Can't complain too much though, Virgin Media have been crippled by a tiny handful of analogue customers for many years and resolving it has been done at glacial speed.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Virgin keep sending me letters about subscribing to their cable service, which I keep chucking in the bin. I had such grief with NCL, that even now they've been taken over by Virgin, I won't deal with them. I'm waiting for my telly to become obsolete in 2012 and then I'll stop buying my TV licence.

 

[Carwash]

We don't have a TV, and don't really see the point of having one.

Seems to be mostly rubbish on anyway - and what is worth watching is cheaper and more convenient to get on iPlayer/4oD/bittorrent/DVD.

 

[marinyork]

Virgin keep sending me letters about subscribing to their cable service, which I keep chucking in the bin. I had such grief with NCL, that even now they've been taken over by Virgin, I won't deal with them. I'm waiting for my telly to become obsolete in 2012 and then I'll stop buying my TV licence.

Fair enough really. One of my points was that a lot of people seem to feel the same and that it would be better to have this done and dusted before the next BBC charter review starts rather than after.

 

[Davidc]

Not sure whether MY approves of the digital dividend or not. As put into practice it means the end of the universality principle (although that really started to die off with analogue C5). Some capacity could still have been swiped/ sold off if the original plan for 6 multiplexes everywhere had been used.

I have never agreed with the reasons given for abandoning the earlier proposals for the changeover and would agree that the second plan should have been followed.

To see how to do a 'digital switchover' efficiently, quickly, and at less cost look at Germany or France. Two different models, both hugely better done than ours. In particular the French have allowed for High Defenition from the start.

I'm not convinced that the present model for organising and distributing TV will survive long term, but that's another issue.