TAM says 55,000 households have yet to switch to digital provider

About 55,000 households are without a television service as they have yet to switch to a digital provider, according to new figures…

About 55,000 households are without a television service as they have yet to switch to a digital provider, according to new figures from Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Ireland. The 55,000 homes, 3 per cent of Irish households, have had no analogue television service since the digital switchover on October 24th.

It may take a number of months for those 55,000, which excludes holiday homes, to switch to alternative services, according to a spokeswoman for TAM Ireland.

“We expect these people to change over the coming months, as has been the case in other European countries [which] have already experienced the switch and we will be continuing to track this,” she said.

A spokesman for the Department of Communications said he was surprised that so many households remained without a TV service. “The figures are surprising,” he said. “They don’t seem to tally with the information we have from our digital champions who are located in every county across Ireland.”

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Just 229 people called the digital switchover helpline in the two days following the analogue signal being turned off – fewer than the department expected.

A spokesman for Age Action Ireland said he was surprised at the figure. “We would ask people with older relatives or neighbours to visit them and see if they . . . are having trouble moving to digital,” he said.