I ECHNO VISION

Jon Woodward

Consumer & Industrial Electronics

.~ C(lcl1 - 4 Church Barton

High StreetWookey

SomersetBA5 1JZ

Telephone/Fax 01749676095

Mr Ed RichardsDirector GeneralOf co mRiverside House2a Southwark Bridge RoadLONDONSE1 9HA

Dear Mr Richards

VAT Reg No 406 7185 53

3rd March 2007

As a retail trader in consumer electronics for over 25 years, it is with great concern that I write to you about thefuture of public service broadcasting in this country and the potentially devastating effect that an uncompetitivedigital terrestrial platform would have on the UK consumer and the consumer market for open standard, compatibletelevision products in this country.

The UK's terrestrial platform has for 50 years been at the forefront of worldwide performance quality and its 625 linePAL system has been the envy of other major developed countries such as the USA and Japan. Today, terrestrialtelevision is playing a major role in the re-equipping of the UK population in readiness for digital switchover. Yetagain, its competitive performance quality and value for money has proven critical in encouraging the mass consumermarket to adopt the Government's digital television switchover objectives.

The performance quality of terrestrial television broadcasting has been core to the specification and development ofall television products sold in the UKsince the introduction of colour.

This has continued through to teletext, nicam stereo and widescreen and through to today, where widescreen panelHO ready IDTV's have become the standard specification for all television sets above 26". A year from now this will beall sets above 20", Why HO ready? Because the consumer is now preparing, not just for digital switchover, but, forthe next quality change in television performance, High Definition, which is widely expected to be the broadcaststandard of the future, for all television software and broadcasting.

Despite the undisputed evidence of the consumer market moving completely to integrated digital HD ready products inreadiness for the pending change in performance quality, Ofco m are suggesting that they have research that states theconsumer is not expecting the terrestrial platform to offer an HD service.

Market facts suggest that they are totally wrong. With HD performance developing in the Pay TV sector, in games, inpre-recorded DVD and hard drive player recorders and in the camcorder market, it is our view that consumerexpectations for a free to view HD performance from their digital terrestrial public service broadcasters will be veryhigh. Their experience today is that public service broadcast programme and performance quality on all platforms iscomparable and competitive, why do they suggest this will change? Do they really believe people will accept a betterquality BBC1and ITV on Sky?

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This letter is to ask for your personal intervention in preventing Ofcom auctioning off the spectrum that will make HDservices possible on the terrestrial platform. This is a once only opportunity to keep the digital terrestrial platformcompetitive for the benefit of the consumer, for the benefit of the open standard television industry and for thebenefit of the Government's switchover plans. It should not be lost or wasted.

Ofcom are currently four weeks into a twelve week consultation with industry before the final decision is taken toauction off the spectrum made available from switchover. Their launch document suggests they have research thatshows that any use of this spectrum would be more in the consumer's interest than HD on the terrestrial platform.This is misleading.

They suggest mobile TV, local TV and wireless broad band are all better candidates to use the spectrum, but fail tooffer the evidence of the last five years where the mobile operators have blatantly failed to encourage the consumerto use their phones for a host of entertainment options. Despite having spent £25 billion on 3G spectrum to providethese services, which they can obviously afford, mobile phones continue to be purchased, primarily as phone call andtexting devices with built-in cameras and mp3 players.

Digital television, on the other hand, is being successfully sold to the consumer on the promise of the benefits ofentertainment "quality and choice". Currently DTT is competitive with all other platforms in delivering both digital"quality and choice".

Evidence is available that public service broadcasters, in developing the quality promise, are now producing virtuallyall new programming in widescreen HD format.

Evidence is also available that confirms the fact that without additional spectrum, the public service broadcasterscannot maintain both the "quality and choice" offerings on the terrestrial platform. However, to maintain acompetitive terrestrial platform in the UK, it is imperative that the public service broadcasters are able to delivertheir programmes in HD.

Our fear is that without a competitive open standard terrestrial platform, the consumer would turn to competingplatforms for their quality public service broadcast services. This, for the first time in history, would make theterrestrial platform a second class platform, development of new open standard television products would potentiallystop and as a result the consumer, our industry and the switchover programme would suffer.

I am extremely concerned that high quality television broadcasting would become the monopoly of BSKYBeither bydesign or default, and that as a result, the consumer will end up paying twice for what should be a free-to-airbroadcasting service.

Intervention in the next two months is critical if we are to maintain a competitive terrestrial television platform in thiscountry, because the public service broadcasters need to be given the use of this extra spectrum and there is currentlyno obvious way of bringing this about.

Yours sincerely

Jon WoodwardProprietor