16 September 2005
The Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, delivered the keynote speech at the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention yesterday, addressing the issue of public service broadcasting (PSB) in the digital world
She said that the digital TV revolution is one that 63 per cent of Britons have already bought into, with over two million households having adopted it in the last 12 months, an increase of 18.4 per cent on the previous year.
Miss Jowell affirmed her commitment to switch off the analogue signal "with confidence that no one is being left behind", and justified the move by saying that continuing to broadcast in analogue and digital would be "inefficient for broadcasters and wasteful of spectrum".
She also confirmed the government would be building out the digital terrestrial network so that around 98.5% of households should be able to receive digital TV, stressing that everyone must "have every opportunity to go digital".
Miss Jowell further said that the BBC would remain "at the heart" of PSB. "But the future of PSB is not just about the BBC. As a nation our commitment to competition in broadcasting can and does sit comfortably with a commitment to public service," she said.
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