Industry prepared to weather switchover storm

摘要

A repeat in 2008 of this summer's wet and windy weather could threaten the UK's proposed timetable for digital switchover after one of the two UK television transmission companies admitted this week that it was already behind schedule. Poor weather throughout the summer, which included the wettest July since records began and substantial flooding across central and southern England, has already prevented engineers from upgrading masts as planned. While some contingency had been built into the programme, one broadcaster said that another very bad summer in 2008 could derail the entire process at a time when four regions -Border, West Country, Granada and Wales - would be gearing up to switch off analogue signals. It is understood that transmissions company Arqiva, which owns around half of the UK's transmitter sites, wrote to customers including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, earlier this month to inform them of slight delays to the programme.