The UK's digital TV programme for local authorities is poised to start a first round of pilot projects, according to the organisers. A total of 35 councils are now committed to the programme and are soon to start using a digital TV "starter kit", Government Computing News was told on 23 January 2004. The kit will aim to help councils implement the technology for delivering services and information over digital TV.
The first pilots are due to start running in two weeks time, with around 10 councils implementing the technology. Initially, work is to be focussed on the "back end rather than the front end", a spokesperson for the National DigiTV Project said.
Five councils – Kirklees, Suffolk, Somerset, Knowsley and Hillingdon -- are involved in organising the project, and are working with the Office of the e-Envoy, which is responsible for negotiating contracts with the platform providers.
So far it has secured deals with Sky and Telewest, but the programme is still waiting for a contract to be signed with NTL.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, is funding the programme and has allocated around £3m. Digital TV company mmtv is supplying the technology for the programme.
When the service is running it will be accessible via the Government's main digital TV offering under a local information and services section. It is expected to become part of the new version of UK Online, the Online Government Store, to be launched later this year and also to be available on digital TV.
Under the early stages of the programme councils will offer information and reporting services. They will not initially offer services involving financial transactions, however.
"It's unlikely in the early stages that there will be complex services that involve payments," the spokesperson told Government Computing News.
"There will be services such as reporting abandoned cars, graffiti, consultations, and basic forms. We'd suggest to councils not to go to the extreme and attempt to offer 59 page documents but to offer services for people to complete within a few minutes from a remote control."
The aim is for all the pilots to be running by the end of March 2004 so that research can be undertaken on how people use the service.
Conservative MP Tony Baldry, who is non-executive chairman of mmtv, said that there would be much incentive for all local authorities to start offering their services over digital TV when the programme is fully running.
"Every chief executive will be looking at how their council can tackle social exclusion and provide e-government services, and digital TV will provide an ideal means of doing this," he said.
"Eventually, there will be a critical mass of users as more and more information becomes available on digital TV. People will start to become more comfortable using it."
Quelle: Kablenet, 23.02.2004
