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On 19 December 2006, Ofcom published proposals for the award of the spectrum freed up by the digital-switchover process—the so-called digital dividend. These proposals are available on our website at:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/ddr/.

An important input was market research undertaken in June 2006 to develop our understanding of consumer and citizen attitudes to potential uses of the digital dividend from the perspective of value to both individuals and society. The report of this research was published alongside our proposals and is available at:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/ddr/mktresearch/.

We held a seminar on 22 May to share our proposals with stakeholders for further market research. The presentation slides are available at:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ddr/events.

This research will update the key findings from 2006 and explore preferences among hard-to-reach population subgroups not included before. Stakeholder comments and suggestions at and following the seminar have helped us to develop these proposals, which are detailed below. This update explains how we intend to carry out this second phase of both quantitative and qualitative market research.

Quantitative research

This will involve a face-to-face survey. The research sample will be nationally representative and include questions from the previous research to enable comparisons.

Potential services that could use the digital dividend will be described using ‘showcards’. The content of the showcards used in last year’s research will be reviewed in the light of comments received from stakeholders.

The research will be designed to ensure that robust samples of key subgroups of the UK population are achieved. This will enable us to identify how opinions differ among, for example:

• those who receive high-definition (HD) television services at home;
• those who have HD-ready television sets but do not receive HD services;
• those who have watched local television;
• those who access email or the Internet on mobile phones and other portable devices;
• those who watch video clips or television on portable devices;
• those with smaller television screens at home;
• those with little interest in digital technology;
• those who live in rural areas; and
• those who have difficulty affording communications services and technology.

New questions will be included to address issues raised by stakeholders at and following the seminar held in May.

Qualitative deliberative research

Deliberative research techniques will be used to elicit informed citizen views on the choices presented by potential uses of the digital dividend.

Large discussion groups will be brought together for a full day at venues in different locations across the UK. They will include representation from urban and rural areas.

This research will include a presentation about the Digital Dividend Review and participants will be shown the potential benefits of each use of the spectrum. They will then be shown demonstrations of all of the new technologies covered by the research. Following discussion of potential sources of private and social value, the groups will rate and rank services from both perspective. The research will also seek to establish views on a range of future scenarios for penetration and use of different technologies.

We aim to publish results of both the quantitative and qualitative research, alongside our policy statement detailing how we will award the digital dividend review, before the end of the year.

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