Digital watch | 22 October 2005

As we’ve seen in the past week, the full cost of providing services that no one asked for, digital radio and television, will fall on the licence-fee payer, with the BBC demanding annual increases of 2.5 per cent above inflation. It wasn’t entirely obvious in the early days of digital promotion that this was something the government was pushing hard for; the BBC case was based largely on how vital it was that broadcasting should become digital, as this was a superior form of broadcasting to the existing analogue signal, and our lives would be immeasurably improved if we all went digital. Does anyone, apart from the BBC, really believe that now?

At the time I argued that the BBC should improve its core programmes, many of which remain abysmal today, and should leave the development of digital to others. But no, the licence-fee payer is to pay for it, with a figure of anything up to £200 a year mentioned as being likely in seven years’ time. No doubt some people watch the BBC’s digital television stations and others perhaps listen to the digital radio networks — though I’ve yet to meet anyone who does — but I still think they are utterly unnecessary and superfluous. It pleases the government, of course, as the sale of analogue frequencies in the future will raise revenue, but the biggest burden of this regressive tax will fall on the least well off in society. Still, politically, when the great compulsory switch-off of analogue comes along it will be fun to sit back and watch.

At least we still have Radios Three and Four, both of which maintain their high quality, largely unscathed by the dumbing-down elsewhere. It was good to see these networks marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar with a series of programmes about Lord Nelson, the actual battle and the period.