18 June 2007
The cost of replacing analogue television sets and VCRs, combined with the £40 instalment fees faced by all those who aren't in the vulnerable or elderly criteria will costs consumers £2.2 billion.
This figure, researched by the price comparison and switching website uSwitch.com, is among the myriad of statistics detailing the financial and environmental impact of transforming an entire nation to digital.
Currently, there are 58 million TV sets in the UK and of those, 42% are not already receiving a digital signal. Nearly five million of those are incapable of going digital and will either be scrapped in favour of more modern sets or have new receivers installed.
Equally, there are 21 million VCRs in the UK, with 38% of their owners stating that they didn't know what to do with them and their limited functions after the switchover and a further 19% already resigning to just take them to the dump.
Steve Weller, Head of Communication Services at uSwitch.com, said that there was still a large amount of confusion surrounding what will happen when analogue signals are switched off, despite that event being just four months away for the first of the UK's TV regions.
"The digital switchover is going to affect the country in more ways than we know. The government has spent millions of pounds attempting to boost consumer awareness, yet it's clear that there's more to be done," said Mr Weller.
"Not only is the switchover costing the nation significantly more than the low cost of a Freeview box, but the potential environmental impact of the discarded VCRs and TVs is shattering."
Mr Weller concluded that collection and recycling schemes needed to be set up soon in order to tackle the mountains of equipment that will be thrown out.
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