A recent survey by the elderly charity WRVS has revealed that more than a million pensioners are still in the dark about the switchover to digital television.

The Women's Royal Voluntary Service charity surveyed 1000 pensioners and found that one in ten older people are completely unaware that their old analogue television could soon be useless unless they switched to digital.

Fred Kaler, speaking on behalf of the Evesham and District Pensioners Association, agreed: "We have been speaking to our members quite a lot about this and there is concern about things like the cost and new technology such as set top boxes, and we think more could be done to inform people."

The number of UK homes with digital television is now over 21.4 million, with 944,000 homes going digital in the second quarter of 2007, leaving around four million people including one million pensioners still in the dark.

WRVS chief executive Lynne Berry said: "It can be confusing and daunting to try and manage this situation when you are on your own so it's essential older people are fully aware of the issue, know what action they need to take and who to turn to."

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