OVER 1,000 people have signed a petition calling on broadcasting regulators, Ofcom, to insist the Borders is fully-served by every available digital TV channel.
The petition is being organised by local MP, Michael Moore, who is seeking to convince Ofcom it should require every digital TV channel be available to every part of the country, including remote areas – where the cost of beaming a digital signal might be prohibitively expensive.
Next year, the Borders becomes the first part of the UK where the analogue TV signal will be switched off in preference to digital only. But it’s believed that channels such as Sky News and UKTV History will not be 100 per cent available in the Borders after the switchover – because of the relative cost of transmitting to sparsely populated areas.
Says Moore: “The huge response that I have had so early on in the campaign shows that this is an issue which many people in the Borders care deeply about. We will not stand quietly by and allow ourselves to be the guinea pigs for the digital switchover process without demanding that we receive the proper service at the end of it all.
“That many people living in our villages will receive a much-reduced television package after switchover is simply unacceptable. With the help of Borderers, I will be able to make a very strong case to both the government and to Ofcom to intervene before it is too late. I would encourage anyone who has not yet done so to sign up to the petition in their local shop or post office.”
