Digital UK teams up with Countdown to raise awareness of digital switchover

Digital UK, the body responsible promoting digital switchover, is sponsoring Channel 4 quiz show Countdown as part of its latest campaign to educate the UK about analogue switch off. It will launch on March 15.

It launched the one-year sponsorship as it announced that Whitehaven and the surrounding Copeland area in Cumbria will be the first area to have its analogue BBC2 signal switched off on October 17 this year. The remaining three analogue channels will be turned four weeks later. The process will be repeated across the UK until it is completed in 2012.

The body also announced new TV and radio trails as well as a Digital Switchover Help Scheme for 25,000 households in Whitehaven area. It will provide digital equipment and installation to people aged over 75 years old and those with disabilities. It is also working with local charities and volunteers, including Age Concerns, to practicial assistance to help people who fall outside the scheme.

It will also be providing primary schools with a range of switchover theme material.