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Digital switchover
Digital tide
is rising
The North West region going digital was an important milestone in the switchover process.
George Cole investigates what manufacturers and organisations such as Digital UK and
Freesat are doing to help consumers and retailers to make the digital switch.
The digital switchover reached an and TV recorders are digital, and have been The majority of calls to our helpline at
important milestone at the end of 2009, for some time,” says Graham North, switchover are from viewers requesting
when the North West region began Humax’s commercial director. Matt Evans, advice on this. The good news is that it
the move from analogue to digital on JVC’s assistant product manager, says usually only takes a few minutes to guide
4 November, with the process due to be none of his company’s models are them through the process – in many cases
completed on 2 December. It’s important analogue, expect for those destined for the they just need reassurance.” The Freeview
because, it’s the first major urban region to Irish market, while Christian Brown, Sony’s retuning process on 30 September 2009
make the change, and includes cities such senior category marketing manager, adds: certainly caused problems for thousands of
as Manchester and Liverpool. Around “All of the latest Sony Bravia television viewers and while press reports of “chaos”
seven million viewers in this region are range are HD Ready, as well as a large and “a fiasco” might have been somewhat
estimated to be affected by the switchover. proportion of DVD recorders having exaggerated, there’s no doubt that retuning
On the face of it, the digital switchover is integrated digital and analogue tuners. did cause problems for a significant number
progressing well. According to Ofcom There are no analogue-only UK products of consumers.
figures for the end of September 2009, the in the current range.” Other Digital UK’s Nicholson, adds that: “For
number of households with TV sets that manufacturers, including Philips, retailers, stock and staff management
could receive digital TV was 89.8%, with an Panasonic and Toshiba state that there are the key issues. Switchover brings
average of 2.4 digital capable sets per TV ranges are now fully digital. a big spike in sales before the first
household. switchover date – how much
Retuning, stocking and other stock do you invest in? The very
Digital products challenges busy days around switchover, when
Manufacturers are certainly helping to guide The switchover faces many challenges. people want to buy
consumers towards digital products, by Mark Nicholson, Digital UK’s trade equipment and ask
removing analogue products from their manager, says: “For consumers, perhaps advice need planning
range. “Our entire range of set-top boxes the biggest challenge has been retuning. and forethought.” Matt
16 TheIndependentElectricalRetailer January 2010
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