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The Digital Switchover Help Scheme
Nick Tanton
BBC
• In 2005 the UK Government asked the BBC to manage a scheme to ensure that older and disabled people are not left behind as the country switches to digital television.
• UK is switching to digital television region by region between 2008 and 2012.
The Switchover Help Scheme
• To provide practical help to older and disabled people to make the switch to digital TV.
• To make sure no eligible person is left with a blank screen after switchover.
Purpose of Scheme
People are eligible for help if :
• they are aged 75 or over,
• they have lived in a care home for 6 months or more,
• they get “Disability Living Allowance”, “Attendance Allowance”, “Constant Attendance Allowance” or “Mobility Supplement”,
or
• they are registered blind or partially sighted.
Who is eligible ?
People who choose to take help get :
• a choice of easy-to-use DTV equipment,
• installation of the equipment and a demonstration of how to use it,
• a new aerial or dish if necessary
and
• free aftercare for 12 months.
What help do eligible people get ?
• Support from the Help Scheme costs £40 for the standard offer although this is free to eligible people who are on various forms of income benefit.
• The Switchover Help Scheme is run by the BBC through an agreement with the UK Government . It is funded out of the BBC licence fee.
How much does it cost ?
Consultation
• Understanding and fulfilling the needs of our eligible people
• Code of Service Standards - a comprehensive range of 91 promises of the service eligible people might expect (eg. all calls handled by trained people, choice of formats for communications, face-to-face help if needed etc.)
• Continual stakeholder consultation and user feedback
• Regular market research
• Understanding those hardest to reach
The scale of the Scheme
• commenced in 2007
• switchover in the UK runs from 2008 until 2012
• there are 15 regions (7 completed by May 2011) ,
• an estimated 7 million eligible people
• so far over 5.5 million have been mailed
• over 700,000 installations have been completed • we’re currently doing > 30,000 per week• we expect to have done a total of morethan >1.6 million by the end of 2012
The Customer Journey
The equipment (1)
• designed with our eligible people in mind
• the “Core Receiver Requirements”* specification sets a standard of user-experience without constraining innovation or commerce
• straightforward and easy to use and to support post-installation
* developed in consultation with stakeholder groups such as RNIB, RNID, Age UK etc
The equipment (2)
• universal remote with a premium standard of useability
• user-feedback (visual and audible)
• clear, short and uncluttered menus
• platform compliant
• value for money
• high-contrast buttons with a positive feel
• well-separated buttons
• buttons grouped by function
• one-touch subtitles
• one-touch AD
• a “home” button
Universal remote
User-friendly service discovery (1)
• Retuning is already a recognised challenge to all TV viewers.
• A significant number of viewers get some DTT signals before their analogue TV signals are switched off.
• Transmitter frequency & power changes, service moves and the addition of new services present an unaccustomed broadcast environment for the viewer, especially to our eligible people.
• How do we make retuning easy ?
User-friendly service discovery (2)
User-friendly service discovery (3)
User-friendly region selection (1)
• DTT signals know no frontiers.
• It has been estimated that over 600,000 households in London alone can see DTT signals from more than one transmitter.
• Of these it is estimated that over 400,000 households can see DTT signals from more than one TV region.
• How do we make it easy for you to choose your preferred version of a regional channel ?
User-friendly region selection (2)
Set-top boxes
In summary
• Accessibility and useability features don’t have to be expensive.
• Although the Switchover Help Scheme focuses on part of the population, the features we have encouraged and developed suit everyone.
• There is a wealth of experience in delivering an improved user-experience to the domestic TV environment.
