Dear Sirs/Madams,

I am writing in response to the public consultation about the BBC's 
digital television services. I ask you to encourage the BBC to support 
standards-based digital broadcasting, in order to safeguard the 
possibility of competition in future market development.

I think my situation may illustrate why I have reached this 
conclusion. I live in North-West Norfolk, currently represented by 
Henry Bellingham MP (Conservative), previously by Doctor George Turner 
(Labour). As you may be aware from some of their comments, this area 
receives Yorkshire-produced BBC terrestial broadcasts from the Belmont 
transmitter, instead of the broadcasts produced in the nearby cities 
of Norwich and Cambridge. We are also a "fringe" reception area and 
outside freeview coverage, according to the freeview postcode checker. 
The poor reception is not really good enough for reliable teletext 
reception. Combined with late arrival of DSL and telephone competition 
to this area, it is a local joke that we are on the wrong side of "the 
analogue divide".

I did not wish to buy a Sky satellite system, for various reasons. I 
believe that is my choice and it should not deny me access to BBC 
digital television. After reading information from the "BBC Digital" 
and "BBC Reception" pages which assured me that I did not need a Sky 
system, I purchased a digital satellite set from another supplier. It 
follows standards published by the DVB project, of which the BBC is a 
member. I have connected the set and can view some of the BBC service 
from the Astra 2 satellites.

Unfortunately, I am denied full access to the service because I did 
not buy a Sky system. I do not get a full electronic programme guide 
(EPG) or a full text information service, both of which are useful for 
navigating the larger range of channels and finding news quickly.

According to the BBC replies to my enquiries so far, the current EPG 
is not fully accessible without a Sky system and the "digital text" 
service promoted in place of CEEFAX is not available to viewers 
without a Sky system. In this way, the BBC's digital television 
service currently encourages purchase of Sky systems and discourages 
competition in the receiver market.

Directing the BBC to fully support the DVB-SI standard for EPG and 
DVB-TXT for a text service would not be significant intervention. It 
would be a minimal safeguard for competition in the DVB receiver 
market. An incomplete DVB-SI EPG is already broadcast and a full 
DVB-TXT CEEFAX service was carried on BBC1 and BBC2 on Astra 2 in 
2001. The CEEFAX service already exists on analogue terrestial 
broadcasts.

The standards are published by the DVB project through the ETSI. DVB 
project members like the BBC should be encouraging these standards, as 
a counterweight to Sky's proprietary platform.  The BBC has a long 
tradition of standards production and support and it created the 
standards which CEEFAX is based on.

I understand that the BBC cannot justify a DVB-standards-based 
"multimedia text" service until receivers are widely available. The 
current Sky systems cannot receive standards-based services and 
"multimedia text" would be a new service, unlike CEEFAX. However, 
receivers for CEEFAX and EPG are already widely-available and partial 
services are already broadcast by the BBC.

Please, encourage BBC on Astra 2 to broadcast a full CEEFAX service on 
one of the national channels, possibly News24, and a full 
standards-based EPG service.

I await your reply with interest. I apologise if any of my terminology 
is incorrect. I am a viewer who has tried to learn about this in order 
to participate in this consultation, not a experienced practitioner in 
the field. I am happy to clarify any points which are unclear, or to 
provide further required information, on request.

Yours faithfully,


MJ Ray