The City University spring conference:
Digital Switchover: Policies and Implementation
13.00 – 18.30
Tuesday 16th May 2006
Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre, City University,
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
Digital switchover (the progressive migration of television households,
from analogue to digital-only reception) brings significant benefits to
consumers, broadcasters, as well as national economies as a whole. These
include:
* Increased choice, quality and enhanced services for viewers
* Lower transaction costs
* Better efficiency in spectrum use
* Cost-effective provision of welfare services over interactive digital
TV
Alongside these tremendous economic and social benefits, the switch-off
of analogue television entails drawbacks, notably it may result in
social exclusion insofar as digital television is unavailable to some
parts of the population.
Which policy steps should be taken to convince people to switch to
digital? How will the consumers adapt to the new era? How will the
industry cope with so many small channels and fragmented audiences? What
are the social implications of analogue switch-off? Will the setting of
a fixed date for the analogue turn-off (i.e. 2012) drive DTV take-up?
What role should public and commercial broadcasters play to enhance
consumer interest in DTV services and address confusion and 'fear' over
them?
Digital Switchover: Policies and Implementation is an opportunity to
engage with these issues and seek answers from experts, leading industry
players, policy makers and academics.
Speakers include:
Steven Barnett (Westminster) Martin Le Jeune (BSkyB)
Patrick Barwise (LBS) David Levy (BBC)
Emily Bell (The Guardian) Martin Sims (Policy Tracker)
Richard Collins (Open) David Sinclair (Help the Aged)
Jim Egan (Strategy Director, Ofcom) Catherine Smadja (DCMS)
Ford Ennals (Digital UK) Damian Tambini (Oxford)
Chris Goodhall (Independent Analyst) Jo Twist (IPPR)
Jocelyn Hay (VLV)
For further information, please visit
www.city.ac.uk/mediacomm/DigSwitch.html The event will be webcast live.
The presentations will be made available for downloading soon
afterwards.
To register, please email Tim Williams on [log in to unmask]
(registration is free)
Organisers:
Dr Petros Iosifidis <[log in to unmask]>
Michael Klontzas <[log in to unmask]>
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