The influential parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts has said Digital UK’s ‘Digital Tick’ logo has failed to protect consumers from the miss-selling of analogue television sets in the run up to digital switchover.
The committee says that only half the staff in two thirds of stores using the four-year old labeling scheme know what it means. (Broadband TV News has often noted the bewildering amount of labels on new TV screens sold in the UK that also include TNT (France) and Boxer (Sweden) among many others).
MPs have asked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business how they will be able to bring the take-up of the logo and its understanding by staff to 90%. In the past few weeks new consumer legislation has required stores to indicate that analogue displays will need a digital converter after switchover, which takes place between now and 2008.
The committee also highlighted the help scheme that provides assistance to certain groups. It said the Departments had failed to identify second set conversion as one of their objectives, even though for some older people and some people with disabilities it is important to be able to watch television in more than one room of the house.
