The digital switchover is the process by which television coverage in the UK goes from a mixture of analogue and digital (depending on the service you have used in the past), to completely 100% digital.  Analogue services will be discontinued completely for the whole of the UK - they will be switched off and replaced completely with digital signals.  This change will occur on a region-by-region basis between 2008 and 2012.

This all sounds very final, and possibly very intimidating.  It is final, but it shouldn't intimidate.  Actually, the change is definitely good news for everyone and the switchover itself will be largely unnoticed by most people - 15 million households are already accessing digital services and probably will not need to make any changes to their current setup.  Those remaining can take a few simple steps to ensure that their equipment is compatible.  There is plenty of help available from a number of resources if you're unsure.

The Switchover Process

Once the switchover has completed there will no longer be any analogue signals; equipment that is designed to receive only analogue signals will not work with the new digital signal.  Satellite and cable subscribers will likely notice no difference in their service; those without satellite or cable will still be able to enjoy the considerable benefits of digital TV, but will require either a digital-ready television (and most equipment sold now will be compatible, but check!) or a set-top (‘Freeview') box.  Freeview boxes are available at any electrical goods retailer, along with some supermarkets; the boxes are cheap, easy to use, and represent excellent value for money.

Switchovers will occur overnight on a date set and communicated well in advance; indicative periods for regions are shown on our page ‘When will the switchover occur?'.  Televisions may need to be re-tuned to the new frequencies once the switchover has taken place, but most modern equipment will be able to perform this task automatically. 

Areas currently unable to receive a satisfactory digital signal will have to rely on analogue signals until the time of the switch - once the analogue signal has been turned off the digital signal will be stronger, will have better coverage, and will be available to everyone.

Why are we switching?

The rationale behind switching to an entirely digital service is that it provides a much better experience for the viewer - in short, it is a better solution.  Besides the better coverage, a clearer picture and more channels that digital TV offers, less obvious benefits such as better quality sound, digital-only radio channels delivered through the TV, and interactive services (you've seen ‘hit red for more information') can also be enjoyed.  The maxim of "if it's not broken, don't fix it" may well apply in some cases, but when the new system provides so many valuable benefits and presents no significant drawbacks, it is difficult to justify not making the move.  The UK leads the world in digitally delivered television.

Digital television signals are sent to your receiver (the TV aerial, usually) as a series of zeros and ones.  The ordering and sequence of these digits conveys information that, with the correct process, can be interpreted and displayed on your screen as pictures and output through your speakers as sound (and indeed translated into other information related to the TV programme, such as additional ‘red button' information and Teletext).

For the non-technically minded the transmittal of any information using what is essentially an ‘on-off' switch may seem implausible, but actually the time taken to pass information using the on-off switch is much less than that taken to pass the equivalent signal through the old analogue method.  This improvement in efficiency of information transfer explains why we can get so much more out of digital TV than we ever could with analogue.

What should I do?

You need to ensure that your equipment is ready for the switchover.  You can receive the signal in a number of ways: through your aerial (you'll need a decoder either built into your TV or attached to it in order to use the signal), through a satellite dish, through a cable, or through a telephone line.  Equipment compatible with the new digital transmissions are identified in shops with the ‘digital tick' logo.  You DO NOT need to buy a new TV (unless you want to of course!).

Once you've got compatible equipment set up and working, you're ready to view in glorious digicolour.