Half of all UK households have now converted all their TVs to digital, according to research published today. The joint Ofcom and Digital UK survey shows a steady increase in public awareness and understanding of the switchover.
Around 87 per cent of people are now aware of the digital switchover, which means of course that there are still 13 per cent of us who don't know anything about it.
But while over half of us are now capable of receiving a digital TV signal, how many of us are actually able to pick it up? Here in Bath for instance, the local TV repeater does not even transmit Channel Five, let alone Freeview.
Bath is actually a good example of where digital TV has not made any kind of foothold at all. If you live in areas like this, regardless of whether you have a Freeview box, you can only get digital terrestrial TV signals from Sky satellite or cable.
Digital mayhem
Cable has never been laid here. And many of the older houses are not allowed to have Sky satellite dishes on them for heritage reasons. Many people across the country are not aware that they won't be able to pick up Freeview signals for up to four years.
The switchover - which involves the turning off of analogue signals and switching to digital - begins in Whitehaven, Cumbria in October and then rolls out across the entire country, finishing in 2012.
Every household will need to make sure all their TVs are capable of receiving a digital signal, when analogue services are closed down.
