Whitehaven: Day Two
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007Life After Analogue Again
Reports coming in from Whitehaven residents suggest that whilst technically the switchover was a success, not everyone was too keen about the whole prospect.
According to a report in Tuesday’s Times and yesterdays Guardian, many residents felt as though they had ‘panicked’ into buying the comparatively expensive Sky packages because they either felt that they could not get all the channels or did not know how to get set up; Angela Parkinson, quoted in the Times said that switchover was; “a big con and […] really confusing. We had to pay extra to get Sky Plus just so we could get a signal on all our televisions”.
Guest house owner Andrew Davies said that initially he had expected to fork our over £5,000 to get TV reception (through Sky) for all of his rooms before he found out that he could get Freeview for a combined cost of £1,000 – a fifth of the initial price.
Mr Davies said that he had not received any help or advice from Digital UK on getting set up for the switchover: “As a guest house it is not an option for us not to have television in all our rooms. There was no help or guidance for small businesses at all.”
Mr Davies added that the change to digital was “a financial burden that has been put upon us without any consultation whatsoever.” Others echoed his sentiment, with some feeling as though it was “another thing that the government is asking us to pay for,” which came, ironically, from a Mr. James Orr, who is unemployed.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:45 pm
So what Digital-TV are actually saying about Mr Orr is that because he is unemployed that he does not deserve digital television or television at all?
I would be very careful if you are going to start attacking unemployed people as it is a cheap stunt and violates the individuals human rights by being ‘named and shamed’ in the way that you have.
If the government had sorted their European Immigration Policy out then Mr Orr might actually have been able to find a job.
Your comments wreak of the middle-class dross that we have come to expect from a public organisation who is trying to get ahead of the game.
Bad show guys.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Hi Julien,
We were pointing out that it was ironic that somebody who was receiving an allowance from the government would complain that they would have to give some of it back.
We weren’t attempting to slander or name and shame anybody. We aim to keep tone of this blog informative and slightly irreverent.
Sorry for the misunderstanding
November 7th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
About time there was a “grey area” comment on here.
Reading the article like I do daily on this site, I think that Mr Woolley is missing the point. There is no attack on the unemployed from the post, but its purely ironic that Mr Orr, currently unemployed, is moaning about giving money back to the government when it has been handed to him from the government. …”ironically, from a Mr. James Orr, who is unemployed”….
It is inevitable that digital tv is coming and currently Sky offer one of the best services available for what the majority of the UK public wish to view - great sports coverage, latest movies, fantastic children’s programmes etc etc.
I’ve been a Sky customer for years and think its a fantastic service.
You may want to check out Sky Picnic……