One-third of the UK population is unsure about how to get ready for the switchover to digital TV, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.
It also says half of retail staff do not have enough knowledge to properly advise on buying digital equipment.

And it warns there could be a surplus of £250m in licence fee cash after a possible overestimate of the cost of a BBC-run switchover help scheme.

Analogue TV is due to be turned off in the UK completely by the end of 2012.

The scheme began with a successful trial switchover in Whitehaven, Cumbria, and will continue region by region until the whole of the UK is digital-only.

Ways of receiving digital TV include through a set-top box, through a TV with a built-in digital receiver and via a satellite dish.

The National Audit Office found that "a good start has been made in preparing for the replacement by 2012 of the analogue television service with a digital one".

It said that 85% of households had already switched from analogue to digital TV for their main set but that another 26 million sets still needed to be replaced.

As well as warning about ignorance over how to change to digital, the report said that 45% of all TV sets sold in the first seven months of 2007 were analogue.

Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said the statistics in the report showed the switchover had become "a recipe for confusion".

"The government departments responsible for digital switchover policy need to do a lot more work opening the eyes of the public and retailers to the reality that analogue TV is being consigned to history," he said.


The report said that there could be a huge overestimate in the budget for a BBC-run scheme aimed at helping the elderly and those with disabilities to switch over.

A total of £603m of licence-fee payers' money has been earmarked for this.

It said that in the Whitehaven switchover trial scheme, take-up of the help scheme had been far lower than estimated.

If that trend was mirrored across the UK, the BBC would have a £250m surplus, it added.

A Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spokesman said the scheme played "a vital role" during the switchover in Whitehaven.

And he added the DCMS and the BBC would "keep the level of funding under review during the lifetime of the scheme".

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