The big turn-off

Glasgow City Council will this month be reviewing tenders for the supply and wiring of new technology so its 65 000 council homes will have the facility to receive any format of television broadcast. Glasgow is seeking Integrated Reception Systems, which will allow tenants in communal building to watch terrestrial and satellite analogue broadcasts as well as digital services from BSkyB and OnDigital.

The initiative is the largest to date among local authorities moving early to secure IRS for their tenants. One driver has been the long expected announcement, tipped to come at the Royal Television Society conference on 17 September, of the date when government will switch off analogue TV.

Culture secretary Chris Smith has been under pressure to take advantage of any opportunity to accelerate the end of analogue so that government can sell off at the earliest opportunity the old broad bandwidths - valued in billions of pounds by the Exchequer. The government’s objective has been assisted by the faster than expected take up of digital television, created by cut throat competition between digital services BSkyB and OnDigital.

The end of analogue will eventually oblige authorities to upgrade communal TV systems in their stock of multi-dwelling units because tenants will otherwise be excluded from access to TV. That cut-off date, though some years ahead, has led several local authorities such as Glasgow to chase solutions for the conversion works while there is a chance to take advantage of the battle between suppliers for market share.

But there is also the problem to councils of not taking action. Says Jack Bennett from Glasgow CC’s policy review and development group: “We’re committed through our rents structure to provide people in the poor reception areas with communal TV systems and we’ll respond to the end of analogue with a means for them to receive the must-carry channels. But we don’t want increasing numbers of people clambering across roofs causing thousands of pounds of damage fitting aerials and dishes.”

The typical price for conversion from ageing communal system to future-proofed IRS is £130 per unit, with the average block costing £15 000 to £20 000 each. However, Salford County Council has been busy converting as many of the 8000 of its 32 000 stock in multi-dwelling units as possible, encouraged by current tendering at a discount. Salford now expects to exploit the unique facilities. Says Ken Griffiths, who oversaw a pilot block of 100 units this summer as the start of 800 to be completed by the year end. “We’ve gone through all the planning and now we’re ready to go. I hope that we could get some selling advantage from the facility for our otherwise hard to let high rise properties. TV is always a big issue.”