At the recent Cambridge Royal Television Society chat-fest, the government reiterated its desire to turn off the analogue spectrum by 2010. But having willed the end, what should they do about the means? The Department of Culture, Media and Sport's current view seems to be that the distribution industry - Sky, cable and Freeview - will carry the UK over the digital threshold by market forces. But I suspect there is a serious and intractable problem with this proposition.
There is a sizeable number of people who simply won't or can't pay for a digital set-top box. For example, there are at least five million people - many of whom are over the age of 75 - living solely on a state pension of £77 a week for a single person and £123 for a married couple. When someone is worrying about the price of own-brand baked beans, the idea of buying a Freeview box must seem as realistic as a weekend in Babington House. And, let's not forget, it's entirely likely that many old people have aerials that require upgrading and legacy televisions without Scart sockets. So the sheer complexity of installation will seem like a nightmare.
Put simply, without a state-subsidised free set-top box, analogue switch-off will not happen. We all know it. Yet how do you make it happen? You have to think of it as part of the benefit system. And as with all benefits, we as a society have to assess why it would contribute to the public good. I do not think the argument that everyone needs access to more channels is of sufficient public benefit to justify the subsidy. Otherwise, it would be perfectly reasonable for taxpayers to ask why they were funding free entertainment channels for others - and this would be particularly galling for low- income families on the margins of poverty.
Furthermore, it will be difficult to make the case that we will individually benefit from any windfall from the sale of spectrum. The funds will, in all probability, not be earmarked for any great and obvious purpose. They will slip into the Treasury's coffers as a windfall and help the hard-pressed chancellor of the day when they turn up.
Also, the distribution industry itself may well complain about the idea of a subsidised box and ask why the government has taken away potential customers. At the very least, they will insist that the government waits until the last possible moment before announcing a free box.
Before I go on to a possible solution to this particular problem, let me set it in context with another significant problem the government is facing. The government has committed itself to putting all of its services online by 2006 and to spending over £18bn across national and local government and the NHS to achieve this over the next five years. The trouble is, not everyone in the country has access to the internet. Nor will they. It's entirely possible that internet usage will top out at 60% of people in the UK. Those citizens least likely to have access to the net at home are senior citizens, the long-term unemployed and those who are chronically ill. Only 9% of pensioners over the age of 75 have access to the internet.
The solution lies in providing a free, low-cost box that provides both digital television and easy access to government services, such as pensions advice, GP booking, repeat prescriptions, chat room-style consultations and home help booking. This would solve a great many problems. It would enable the government to be more efficient and effective in its interactive relationship with those who need it most, and therefore save money. After all, a single visit to a GP costs £17 and missed visits are, paradoxically, expensive because of the administrative burden on the system. Using a simple iTV interface to manage the GP booking system makes economic sense.
Other distributors can hardly complain about a box that is part of the benefits system. And we can all agree that the social good is enhanced by making the lives of those who struggle most easier. And, by making their lives easier, we can provide a good reason for pensioners and others to take up the service.
There are precedents for this idea. A few years ago the Scottish Executive announced a £350m fund to install central heating in the homes of 70,000 pensioners and 71,000 council house tenants. This works out at £2,500 a home. At YooPublica we have been working on a box that will cost, perhaps, £100 a home to install. And in return for making people's lives better, the government gets all that shiny spectrum back to do with as it wishes. It's a bargain.
David Docherty is chief executive of YooPublica
