Digital switchover sounds great in principle. What do people like myself do, who cannot receive terrestial digital signals? Will I get a reduced licence fee? I don't think so!! So I have no option but to pay additional costs for satellite as well as an exhorbitant licence fee.

keith knutton, holmfirth, yorkshire

It seems Edward Leigh doesn't understand what is happening.

Quote from article above:
"...It certainly suggests that a lot of screens will go blank after switchover.”
As long as people have a separate Sky or a Freeview box, a digital TV is not required.

Conversely my area of East Sussex cannot get Freeview and are not scheduled to get it until 2012. So why would we want to buy digital TVs?

Bob, Eastbourne, East Sussex

I can't wait for the first storm after the switchover. No-one will be able to watch anything!

Hugh, High Wycombe,

Ummm. shouldn't that headline be GOVERNMENT overbudgets by £250m...

D Williams, Paris,

To Paul, in Poole: There is nothing quite like 'plucking programmes out of thin air'. Broadcast TV might have the disadvantage of interference (in either analogue or digital form) but does not take any more infrastructure or resources (establishing the area coverage aside) to have one person or a million watching a programme.

Internet-delivered content can be guaranteed of identical quality for all viewers, if downloaded and watched asynchonously, but suffers from its own delays (and/or at lower quality) when attempting to watch 'live' across clogged links. Modern network broadcast protocols make it quite lot less significant than a milion indiviual seperate downloads might, but transfering everything from radio waves to cabled internet would still swamp the capacity of even the next few generations of network pipes without some advanced trickery.

The argument between Analogue and Digital is another one. Digital: Either 'perfect' or faulty; Analogue: Degrades gradually to snow.

Phil, Sheffield,

I've got digital tv. It's pretty much a waste of money. I mainly watch the terrestrial channels, apart from 'Lost', which I could easily watch online if I wanted. Free broadband isn't bad, though!

Babs, London,

I totally agree with the person from Oxford. Why do we have to change can't we have a choice?

Vicki, Tewkesbury, G.Britain

Of course the "help" scheme is underspending. It is badly targeted, badly publicised and expensive for those not on benefits. It also only addresses one element of a multi-faceted problem. Typical Government "help" scheme, really.

Gerry, Coventry,

Has anyone actually done the sums? OK me either but certainly where DAB radio is concerned anecdotal evidence suggests that the new transmitters are significantly less efficient than analogue. High manufacture and running costs can only contribute to global warming, the government's new sworn enemy.... The roll out of digital radio is suffering faltering support, witness GCap media's recent pull out of DAB radio citing poor economic viability. I don't quite see TV suffering the same way but the question stands. While most of todays society seems ot plump for quantity over quality there are still those who prefer analogue vision and sound where 'they' can't turn down the bit rate to cram more channels in. While all it takes is £30 and 5 minutes plumbing in a freeview receiver to sort out one half of the problem the irritation kicks in when you have to pay to get your aerial pointed in the right direction to stop the stuttering pixelated images that arethe bain of digital TV viewers.

Roly, Ditton, Kent

Complete waste of time and money.The analogue tv signal is much more solid,clearer,doesn't pixilate,doesn't say...."please wait checking signal" etc.etc.....Who on earth wants 50+ programmes of junk tv, junk adverts, a surfeit of trashy american programmes and endless repeats often on different channels at the same time. Digital Junk TV...No thank you. Why are we being forced into this road that very few wish to go down ?

Josh Martin, Oxford, Gt.Britain

Whilst some would welcome the 'Digital age a large majority of viewers would not. You can watch millions of TV Programs, Films, and Documentries on the Internet for alot less than the current TV licence. You can watch as much as YOU like, when YOU like. Programs don't 'stutter' like the digital ones do and i'd rather not look into the possibility of having another Box of tricks sat with the DVD player and Video Recorder.....Digital TV? No thanks!

paul, poole, GB