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News Release
4th February 2009
Switchover Help Scheme chooses its standard offer for Granada
After a formal process, the Switchover Help Scheme has chosen
Freeview as the standard offer of practical help for eligible older and
disabled people in the ITV Granada region.
The Switchover Help Scheme was set up by the Government and is run
by the BBC. Its purpose is to make digital TV easy for older and
disabled people by converting one of their televisions to digital in
the run-up to digital TV switchover in their region. People will be
offered the help if they are aged 75 or over, registered blind or
partially sighted, eligible for certain disability benefits or have
lived in a care home for six months or more.
Almost seven million people around the country will be eligible for
help under the Help Scheme. The ITV Granada region will be the most
populated so far to switch to digital at the end of this year.
Eligible people in the ITV Granada region will be offered a Freeview
set top box installed on one of their TVs at a subsidised cost of £40,
or free if they also get income benefits. The equipment will give them
access to more than 20 channels including all the public service
channels. The help also includes a demonstration of how to use the
equipment, an aerial check and upgrade if necessary for those that own
their own aerials, and a Help Line to ring for advice while they get
used to it.
If there are eligible people who cannot get digital television
through an aerial, they will be offered satellite equipment from
freesat from the BBC and ITV on the same terms.
eaga, the Help Scheme's service provider, will manage the delivery
of the both the Freeview and freesat standard offers. eaga is committed
to delivering the high standard of specialist service required by the
Help Scheme.
People eligible for the Switchover Help Scheme in Granada can also
choose from other digital options at extra cost. They include digital
recorders, televisions with digital built in, and satellite options
from freesat from BBC and ITV and from Sky, including high definition
options. Some are delivered by other providers.
All Help Scheme options are clearly set out in an information pack
which will be sent directly to the home of every eligible person in
Granada.
The Help Scheme determines the standard offer, or most cost
effective option, in each successive switchover region following a
process set out in the Scheme Agreement between the Government and the
BBC. The process is designed to ensure platform neutrality and value
for money. The provider of a standard offer must firstly meet the
rigorous service standards required to meet the needs of Help Scheme
eligible people, and secondly on cost to the Help Scheme, which is
funded by the BBC licence fee. The current options have been chosen
just for ITV Granada and the process will be repeated for switchover in
each ITV region.
Press contact
Juliet McShannon
PR and Communications Manager, Switchover Help Scheme
020 8008 2680
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Standard offer
The process for establishing the standard offer, or "most cost effective option", is set out in the Scheme Agreement between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the BBC
Standard offer equipment must meet the Help Scheme's usability
requirements and the service provider commits to the Help Scheme's Code
of Service Standards.
Digital television switchover is the
process of converting the UK's terrestrial television system to
digital. Between now and 2012, analogue channels will be switched off
region by region and replaced with free-to-air digital TV and radio
services (Freeview). Switchover will extend Freeview coverage to the
whole of the UK and free up airwaves for new services such as
ultra-fast wireless broadband and mobile television.
Switchover at the Winter Hill transmitter group, serving Liverpool,
Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and north Staffordshire (the Granada
TV region), will happen in a two-stage process on 4 November and 2
December, 2009.
The switchover timetable is as follows:
| Region | Switchover |
| Border | 2008-2009 |
| West Country, Granada | 2009 |
| Wales | 2009 - 2010 |
| STV North | 2010 |
| West - STV Central | 2010 - 2011 |
| Central, Yorkshire, Anglia | 2011 |
| Meridian | 2011 - 2012 |
| London, Tyne Tees, Ulster | 2012 |
Digital UK
Digital UK is the independent, not-for-profit organisation
established in 2005 to implement digital switchover. It is jointly
owned and funded by the public-service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel
4, Five, S4C and Teletext) and the digital multiplex operators.
eaga
eaga, the provider of residential energy efficiency and outsourcing
services, has been selected by the BBC as the Help Scheme service
provider to deliver the help available under the scheme from the ITV
Border region onwards.