Ofcom outlines digital strategy

by Robin Parker, Media Week 05-Apr-06, 12:51

Ofcom has put digital at the core of its plans for the coming year and has prioritised moves to support elderly and disabled people in the switchover.

In its annual plan for 2006/7, the regulator said it would work with Digital UK and the government to ensure that vulnerable consumers, including older people, receive support as part of a move to understand better the varying needs of different groups of the population.

Ofcom said it would promote the availability of broadband and digital TV and would identify areas in which market failures have made intervention necessary.

It is also to make more spectrum available for DAB digital radio and is to consider how to licence radio in the future, and would advise small broadcasting outfits on moving to digital.
Following its review of public service broadcasting, Ofcom will next conduct a financial review of Channel 4, as well as further research into local TV, and will look at how news content is likely to be produced and consumed in the future.
Ofcom said the moves reflected the nation's acceptance of digital technology. There are now over ten million broadband connections, digital TV is in more than two-thirds of homes and almost three million DAB digital radio sets have been sold to date.