Digital switchover could cost £7bn. The hidden costs of forcing Britain to switch completely to digital television were revealed for the first time today with experts warning the cost of household electricity bills will soar because of the inefficiency of set-top boxes. ¶ Chris Goodall, an analyst with strategic consultants Enders Analysis, put the price of the broadcasting revolution at almost £7bn over the next 20 years. ¶ Some £3.5billion of that alone was down to consumers' electricity bills because of the increased energy demands of set-top boxes. ¶ And people living in flats would be hit hard by the need to upgrade aerials when the government turned off the analogue broadcasting network. ... Link: Guardian.
I thought it would be interesting to bring these comments from Bob Miller, Viacel Corp. up out of the Comments section below: --Dennis
Once analog switchoff occurs and digital broadcasting can increase their power from the extremely low power levels they are broadcasting at now the need for improved antennas will be insignificant. In fact most receivers and their antennas will be built right into the DTV set. Reception in the UK will be ubiquitous and simple in most cases with indoor antenna.
If you want to know what the power levels that are being used in UK are here are some facts. The highest powered transmitter in the UK is 20 kW. The average power level of the appoximately 480 in use is ONE kW (though some are as low as 3 W). If you add up all the 480 transmitters power to one sum they come to less than half of the power of a single US MEGAWatt station. And that is after they have DOUBLED the power levels of most of these stations a couple of years ago.
The savings the "poor" will benefit from the most is the far greater content and the increased quality of the signal free of charge. Many will be able to cancel subscriptions to satellite services whose charges are putting them in the poor house to begin with.
The digital TV transition will actually lift many out of poverty.
Once analog switchoff occurs and digital broadcasting can increase their power from the extremely low power levels they are broadcasting at now the need for improved antennas will be insignificant. In fact most receivers and their antennas will be built right into the DTV set. Reception in the UK will be ubiquitous and simple in most cases with indoor antenna.
If you want to know what the power levels that are being used in UK are here are some facts. The highest powered transmitter in the UK is 20 kW. The average power level of the appoximately 480 in use is ONE kW (though some are as low as 3 W). If you add up all the 480 transmitters power to one sum they come to less than half of the power of a single US MEGAWatt station. And that is after they have DOUBLED the power levels of most of these stations a couple of years ago.
The savings the "poor" will benefit from the most is the far greater content and the increased quality of the signal free of charge. Many will be able to cancel subscriptions to satellite services whose charges are putting them in the poor house to begin with.
The digital TV transition will actually lift many out of poverty.
Posted by: Bob Miller | Saturday, 22 January 2005 at 01:30