Television: The town where screens went black

will hold its breath.

On October 17, this Cumbrian port and the surrounding area will be the
first part of the UK to have its analogue TV signal switched off and
replaced by digital-only broadcasts. There's a lot riding on it. For
Digital UK, the body established by the government to deliver digital
switchover, it is the first chance to show it is on top of its remit.
For the government, the electoral consequences of depriving voters of
their TVs do not bear thinking about.

With the authorities determined to make switchover a success, Whitehaven
has been at the centre of a marketing firestorm. Since it was named as
the test area a year ago, roadshows, posters, radio campaigns, direct
mail, in-store activity - even ministerial visits - have been employed
to ensure that everyone is aware of the switchover.

It is a process that will be played out in towns and cities across the
country over the next five years. Region by region, the analogue signal
will be turned off between 2008 and 2012. Digital UK has a £200m
budget to inform the public and make sure nobody is left behind.
Whitehaven, then, is the test-bed for the biggest public-sector
marketing campaign the UK has ever seen. Its importance is clear in the
amount being spent. Digital UK won't reveal the budget for the activity
in Copeland (the region around Whitehaven), but it admits that it is
investing 25% more per household than its national target. The lessons
learned here will affect the next five years of activity.

Copeland seems a peculiar choice to test the shiny new world of digital
TV. This sliver of Cumbrian coastline has not until now been able to
receive Freeview transmissions, and there is no cable TV. Consequently
Sky penetration is high, at about 70% of households, but for the
remainder of the population, digital is something new. In two weeks, the
screens will go dark on BBC Two, and a range of channels will appear on
Freeview. Four weeks later, the rest of the analogue signal will be
turned off.

The official reasons for the choice of Copeland is that technically it
is easy to switch off without affecting neighbouring areas, and that the
region is reasonably representative in terms of the types of housing
(private versus social and houses versus flats). But you don't have to
go far to find competing theories. Andrew Davies, who moved to
Whitehaven four years ago to open a guesthouse, voices a simmering
resentment common among residents. 'The reason that they're doing it
here is that if and when it all goes wrong, nobody will notice,' he
says. 'If it happened in Surrey there would be uproar.'

This is not the first time Whitehaven has flirted with the future. One
of its claims to fame is that in the 18th century it became the first
planned town of the modern era, and right angles abound as the Georgian
streets fall back from the harbour in a surprisingly modern grid
pattern. In fact, Whitehaven even claims to be the template for the
expansion of New York. Those were the town's glory days, when the local
coal and iron ore industries brought prosperity to Cumbria's west coast.
It became the third-biggest port in England, behind only Bristol and
London, as ships packed with sugar and rum jostled with the fishing
fleet beside the stone jetties. The town cemented long-term links with
the US when former resident John Paul Jones became a US naval hero - and
came back to attack Whitehaven for good measure.

Since that peak, however, the town's fortunes have fared less well. The
pits are closed and the fishing industry is a fraction of what it was;
the harbour is now packed with small pleasure boats. The main employer
is the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant a few miles down the coast,
which accounts for half the jobs in the Copeland region. The majority of
the rest of the locals depend on the tourism at nearby Lake District
National Park, and every two years Whitehaven gets a payday in its
Maritime Festival, when upwards of 200,000 people pour into the
town.

A Millennium Lottery Grant has cleaned up the harbour and the Georgian
facades of the town centre. But you don't have to go far up the steep
hills that hem the town into the coast to see peeling paint and
crumbling brickwork. The main shopping street features as many pound
shops as it does coffee shops, and Copeland Council's statistics show a
population in decline and older than the national average. Alan Cleaver,
deputy editor of the Whitehaven News, says it is a region of extremes.
'Economically, we're on a par with Romania in terms of EU grants. There
is real poverty on some of the estates, with a lot of families on the
breadline. For them a Digibox is serious money,' he says. 'Then there's
the Sellafield managers on very good salaries.'

Given these demographics, Digital UK has set itself a challenge. The
official figures show 100% awareness that switch-over is taking place.
But knowing it is happening does not mean the town's population knows
what to do about it. In fact, several issues have arisen over the course
of the campaign.

The first is confusion over exactly where switchover is happening. Not
all parts of the Copeland area are served by the transmitters that are
being converted. There are tales of Digital UK volunteers knocking on
doors of residents in north Whitehaven, only to find out those houses
are not in the switchover area. To combat this, Digital UK ran TV
captions that appeared only on sets in the affected areas, as well as
leafleting relevant postcodes. 'These were the only ways to tell
somebody for certain that they would be affected,' says Beth Thoren,
director of communications at Digital UK. 'They are perhaps the most
important part of our communications.'

Another issue is the complexity of the message that needs to be
broadcast. It is not just a question of signing up to Sky or buying a
Freeview box; the town's residents need to convert every TV set in their
homes. They also need to replace their VCRs, as once the analogue signal
is switched off, they will no longer work properly (viewers can only
record what they are watching). For this reason the campaign has had to
pass through several phases, from initial awareness-raising to
explaining the issues to make sure people know what to do with their new
equipment. Local retailers have joined in - one electronics store is
running a radio ad urging people to replace their VCRs.

Late rush to convert

Perhaps the biggest hurdle has been converting awareness and knowledge
into action. At Brooks, an audio-visual store in Whitehaven town centre,
the rush to buy boxes has begun only in recent weeks. 'It's been a very
late take-up,' says manager David Simpson. 'We've been encouraging
people to convert all year, but only in the past few weeks have people
woken up to what's going on.'

According to Simpson, one of the biggest spurs to action was the test
launch of Five on digital terrestrial over the summer. For the first
time, it allowed people who bought Freeview boxes to test whether they
worked. Nevertheless, official figures show most non-digital households
don't plan to do anything until directly before switchover, and 5% of
households won't act until after it's taken place. That will place a
major strain on resources.

'You can't change human nature, and part of that is leaving things to
the last minute,' says Thoren. As a result, Digital UK has changed its
plans for work in other regions. Instead of beginning its local
campaigns three years ahead of switchover as planned, it will begin
marketing two years beforehand.

Round the corner from Brooks, on Whitehaven's main shopping street, is
the official Digital Help Scheme shop. Run by Capita for the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport, it was opened in July by local MP Jamie
Reed and the town's oldest resident, Florence Parnaby, aged 100. Those
over 75, the blind or partially sighted, and recipients of certain
benefits can claim help under the scheme, which will sell them a
Freeview box for £40 and install it (though it will only convert
one TV set).

It, too, is expecting a last-minute rush. Reports in September suggested
that just 1000 of the 9000 forms sent to eligible people had been
returned. The fact that Tesco is selling Digiboxes from £10 may
have led some to question why they should pay £40 for the Help
Scheme.

The assumption behind the Help Scheme is that old people are the ones
who need guidance. But Cleaver believes the Whitehaven experience has
undermined this expectation. He points to poor families, who find it
difficult to manage money yet have several TVs to replace. 'It's very
patronising. Whatever help scheme is run for the rest of the country,
they must get away from this idea that only the elderly need help.'

It is a view shared by Mary Bradley, director of Age Concern North-West
Cumbria. The charity, the biggest in the region, has been one of Digital
UK's most prominent partners in the information campaign, running
drop-in centres, providing volunteers and housing Digital UK's local
development leader. 'The people who have come in to our centres have
been all ages,' she says. 'Single mums with four teenage sons, each with
a TV in their room, want advice on how to do it cheaply.'

Local word of mouth

Building local partnerships has been key. Tying with Age Concern has
given the campaign a bigger presence, as the charity has run stalls at
local events. It has also allowed access to peer networks that
conventional marketing might not reach.

Digital UK's Thoren believes generating word of mouth in this way is
crucial. The organisation certainly achieved this with the countdown
clock, which caused a storm when it was erected without planning
permission. More intentionally, it has trained staff in retailers that
sell digital equipment. The idea is that the message is better coming
from local people than a central authority. To this end, it is in talks
with a number of charities to replicate the Age Concern tie on a
national scale. Future switchover campaigns will rely on organisations
with the local connections to spread the word effectively.

Freeview, which has been marketing heavily in Whitehaven, has also been
following a locally tailored strategy. It began in-store work in July,
then a month later launched a press campaign featuring prominent
townspeople such as Whitehaven's town crier and the local butcher.

The operator's activity has followed two strands: to introduce the
Freeview service to people without digital; and for those who already
know about digital TV, to sell the Freeview Playback digital recorder as
an alternative to a VCR. Recent events included a VCR 'amnesty' at a
local Comet store, in which 100 people received a free Freeview Playback
device in return for their old video recorder. When the 100 free sets
had been given away, there was nearly a riot among those who had missed
out.

According to Sophie Alexander, Freeview's head of consumer marketing,
the Whitehaven experience has convinced it that this two-pronged
approach is the right one. 'We've learned to engage with people at a
local level, and it's been well received,' she says.

For all this activity, there are still many who complain they have not
received enough information. Thoren admits there has been a lot of
'white noise' as the various organisations and companies involved have
sent out different messages.

As a result, nobody is quite sure what will happen when the screens go
dark. Between October 17 and full switchover in November, Whitehaven's
townsfolk will have to switch between analogue and digital to receive
the full range of channels. It is at this stage that problems may arise
as people realise exactly what analogue switch-off means for them.
Electrical shops will be inundated, helplines jammed and manpower
stretched to the limit. But, ultimately, there is no going back. In the
digital revolution, the people of this sleepy little port are - whether
they like it or not - the vanguard.