12 December 2005
Debate is currently underway about how best to fund the switchover to digital TV – and whether license fee payers should be made to foot the bill.
With BBC bosses looking to raise £1.6 billion to fund the switch to digital, the Conservative peer Lord Fowler warned the House of Lords that the money should not be levied from the public.
Lord Fowler said that plans to up the license fee to over £180 were "unacceptable" and suggested funding could be alternatively acquired through selling analogue frequencies to phone companies.
However, a spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has countered that the government perceives the total transfer to digital as an "essential part" of the BBC's public service role and that it "has therefore asked the BBC to implement and pay for schemes that will ensure no-one is left behind", BBC News reports.
Culture minister Tessa Jowell has told the BBC to make sure that all of its viewers are capable of receiving digital television services before it stops providing its analogue services at some point between 2008 and 2012.
A recent survey by Ofcom found that 65.9 per cent of all homes, representing
16.5 million households, currently watch digital television.
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