RSS
Home | Organization | Digital UK
|
|
|
Digital UK communicates switchover to the public, works with industry to build support for the switchover programme, and co-ordinates engineering work across the UK broadcast network. The company works closely with Ofcom, the communications regulator, and the government Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Digital UK itself comprises marketing, media relations, public affairs and technical departments. The company was set up as a not-for-profit body at the request of the government and Ofcom, but it is independent from both. Its shareholders are the UK public-service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) and transmission companies SDN and Arqiva. Most of Digital UK's budget is funded by the licence fee, and the company is formally a subsidiary of the BBC. Digital UK was formed in April 2005 as SwitchCo, adopting its present name five months later. It is based on Percy Street in Fitzrovia, London. The Chief Executive is David Scott and the chair is Barry Cox. The company completed the first digital switchover in Whitehaven, Cumbria in 2007, and has since completed the process in Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands and large parts of England. The entire switchover programme is expected to finish in Northern Ireland in 2012. |
