News Release

29th September 2008

Switchover Help Scheme chooses its standard offer for the West Country

After a formal process, the Switchover Help Scheme has chosen
Freeview as the standard offer of practical help for eligible older and
disabled people in the ITV West Country region.

The Switchover Help Scheme was set up by the Government and is run
by the BBC. Its purpose is to make digital TV easy for older and
disabled people by converting one of their televisions to digital in
the run-up to switchover in their region. People will be offered the
help if they are aged 75 or over, registered blind or partially sighted
or eligible for certain disability benefits.

Eligible people in the ITV West Country region will be offered a
Freeview set top box installed on one of their TVs, at a subsidised
cost of £40, or free if they also get income benefits. They will also
be offered a demonstration of how to use the equipment and a Help Line
to ring for advice while they get used to it.

The Switchover Help Scheme will also test eligible people's aerial,
if they own one, and upgrade it if needed to receive the digital
signal, for the same cost. People unable to receive television through
an aerial will be offered satellite equipment instead (freesat from BBC
and ITV).

eaga, the outsourcing service provider chosen to deliver the Help
Scheme, will install both the Freeview and freesat options in the West
Country. The company is committed to deliver the high standard of
specialist service required by the Help Scheme to meet the diverse
needs of older and disabled people new to digital TV.

All those who are eligible for the Switchover Help Scheme can also
choose from other digital options, some of which cost extra. These will
be finalised later. People can also opt to choose Freeview digital
recorders or a television with digital built in. All options will be
clearly set out in an Options Pack which will be sent directly to every
eligible person's home between November and the spring of 2009
depending on when their transmitter will switch.

The Help Scheme determines the standard offer, or most cost
effective option, in each successive switchover region following a
process set out in the Scheme Agreement between the Government and the
BBC. The process is designed to ensure platform neutrality and value
for money. The provider of a standard offer must firstly meet the
rigorous service standards required to meet the needs of Help Scheme
eligible people, and is judged secondly on cost to the Help Scheme,
which is funded by the BBC licence fee. The current options have been
chosen just for ITV West Country and the process will be repeated for
switchover in each ITV region.

The ITV Border region will be the first to switch and the analogue
service from the Selkirk transmitter will start to switch on 6 November
this year. The Caldbeck and Douglas transmitters and their relays will
switch between April and June 2009. The standard offer in the ITV
Border region is a Sky satellite system. Sky did not make a bid to be
standard offer in the West Country.

Notes to editors:

Standard offer

The process for establishing the standard offer, or "most cost
effective option", is set out in the Scheme Agreement between the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/framework/digital_switchover.html)

Standard offer equipment must meet the Help Scheme's usability
requirements and the service provider commits to the Help Scheme's Code
of Service Standards.

Digital television switchover is the
process of converting the UK's terrestrial television system to
digital. Between now and 2012, analogue channels will be switched off
region by region and replaced with free-to-air digital TV and radio
services (Freeview). Switchover will extend Freeview coverage to the
whole of the UK and free up airwaves for new services such as
ultra-fast wireless broadband and mobile television.

Switchover timetable is as follows:

Digital UK

Digital UK is the independent, not-for-profit organisation
established in 2005 to implement digital switchover. It is jointly
owned and funded by the public-service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel
4, Five, S4C and Teletext) and the digital multiplex operators.

eaga

eaga, the provider of residential energy efficiency and outsourcing
services, has been selected by the BBC as the Help Scheme service
provider to deliver the help available under the scheme from the ITV
Border region onwards.