U.K.: £2.9m Earmarked To Aid Digital TV Switch

LONDON, England (Guardian), February 18 2008: Television switchover body Digital UK is funding a £2.9m initiative to support viewers not covered by the existing targeted help scheme. Digital UK is setting up a new organisation, Digital Outreach, bringing together the charities Age Concern England, Help the Aged and Community Services Volunteers, as well as drawing on help from Collective Enterprises, a company specialising in working with the charity sector. The initiative is aiming to help to ensure viewers are prepared when analogue terrestrial TV services are switched off region by region, a process that begins in November and will not be completed until 2012. Digital Outreach will offer help to those who fall outside the reach of the BBC's £600m aid scheme, which is designed to help the over-75s, disabled people and blind people. The organisation aims to assist older people who are under 75, those with sensory, mobility or dexterity impairments, people with learning difficulties and those who are socially isolated. Digital Outreach will commission support from local and regional voluntary sector organisations and charities, in the six months leading up to each region's switchover. The body intends to train volunteers, provide information to potentially vulnerable people and organise public meetings, home visits and switchover help centres. Digital UK is owned by the UK's public service broadcasters - BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five, S4C and Teletext - and by the digital TV multiplex operators SDN and National Grid Wireless. By Chris Tryhorn © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008