Minister on air to mark digital switch

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte will signal the end of analogue television at 10am this morning — and the thousands of people who have yet to make the switch will then see their screens go fuzzy.

Mr Rabbitte will be on air with Miriam O’Callaghan from 9.55am today, with the analogue system closing down at 10am.

Thousands of householders could find themselves staring at a blank screen, with indications that, despite months of advertising, many households have still not made the change to digital.

That means they will be unable to view channels through just an aerial, although Brian Geraghty, RTÉ’s digital reception manager, said indications from TV retailers were that Saorview boxes and Saorview approved sets were “flying out the doors” in recent weeks.

The analogue system has operated in Ireland for 50 years of television in this country, but it is being closed down across Europe by this December.

Most EU states have already made the digital switch, while the last of the North’s analogue system is being closed down today.

The most recent figure on the number of households yet to switch date from late September, when the number was 100,000.

Brian Geraghty said the exact number of people left behind in the digital changeover will not be known until the next Nielsen figures are published.

“We do know that more than 300,000 people have already made the switch,” he said, adding that in some cases people have purchased the new Saorview box but have yet to connect the equipment.

In other cases, he said people simply did not believe that the analogue system was being switched off, and that, in some cases, cost may be an issue. A Saorview box retails from between €50 and €85, which could prove difficult for some householders.

“Realistically, it is going to be more than a couple of hundred people,” Mr Geraghty said of the number yet to switch to digital.

One area that has experienced a boom due to the switchover is television recycling.

WEEE Ireland, named after the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, said the number of old televisions being delivered to its premises for recycling has increased by 100,000, or roughly 25%, so far this year. A total of 400,000 sets are likely to be recycled this year. The last two months, in particular, has seen a surge in the number of old sets being sent for recycling ahead of the switchover.

WEEE Ireland said that it had collected more than 25,000 CRTs (cathode ray tubes — from older televisions) and flat screens in August alone and that this is an increase of more than 7,000 units on last year’s figures, where the average monthly rate of CRTs collected for recycling was approx 18,000 units.