The future of broadcasting: a pivotal moment for digital participation

Natalie Ceeney, our Chair, was delighted to speak at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Spring Conference 2026. The session brought together Natalie, Jonathan Thompson (Everyone TV CEO) and Elizabeth Anderson (CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance), in a panel chaired by Stewart Purvis, for a lively and important discussion on digital inclusion and the future of TV distribution. Natalie’s introductory remarks set out why the next phase of broadcasting offers a powerful opportunity to unlock wider digital participation across the UK.

I’m not a broadcaster. But I am leading work through The Connection Project which involves the future of broadcasting. So let me start by outlining a bit of what we’re up to.

The Connection Project exists because we’re at a really important moment of change across the UK economy. It’s 35 years since the internet came into our lives – but this feels like a pivotal moment as we tip from digital being ‘an option’ to increasingly becoming ‘the default’.

What we can all see is that digital services have changed just about aspect of our lives,

whether at home or at work. We no longer all watch the same programme at the same time, no longer shop physically only in daylight hours, or speak to friends through a landline.

But the speed and scale of this transformation brings new pressures. Everyone I speak to has a story – about their parents, their relatives or friends who is struggling to cope with the digital society we are now in. Digital is not yet working for everyone.

It’s easy, as industry, to see it just through our lens. Banks think about banking. Government thinks about public services. And we, today, are talking about TV. But we, as citizens, think about services in the round. And for digital services to work, we do need to be joined up. There is no point designing a fabulous app if there isn’t connectivity to use it, or if someone can’t afford a device.

We’ve conducted extensive research on how the UK compares internationally – and it’s not a universally positive picture. What we see in the UK is that we’ve made huge progress on infrastructure. We’ve built sophisticated systems. We’ve digitised services rapidly. It’s transformed the way services operate – from a broadcast perspective we can see it in the way people consumer media, from the switch away from watching broadcast TV to consuming content whenever and wherever you want. But too many people are being left behind – and more than in some other nations.

We will all have a story, but let me share mine. My father in law, who is 86, has Alzheimer’s. He can no longer bank online, so my mother in law has to manage that for him. My husband regularly has to pretend to be his father in order to query bills, as everything is in his father’s name, and even with Power of Attorney my mother in law struggles to get providers to listen to her. The one thing my father in law lives for is TV. He has broadband, and loves the fact he can watch sport at any time. But what he can’t manage is the TV interface – despite us doing our best to find him a simple TV, he struggles to find what he needs.

We have a choice.

That choice is fundamentally – do we want this digital society to work for everyone, or not?

If the answer is ‘no’, then we don’t have to change a thing. Commercial providers will design and market services for the most digitally sophisticated.

We will accept that not everyone is online – and pay lip service to the analogue services

which still exist.

But we all know that over time they wither and degrade. Phonelines get shorter and shorter hours. Providers quietly turn off the ‘phone’ or ‘pay by cash’ option – just try and park today without a modern smartphone. The lack of standards mean that everyone gets away with it. In broadcast TV, the choice of channels will decline – and investment in the programmes we love will suffer.

If we do care about services working for everyone, then we need to take active steps. And perversely, switchovers are one of the most powerful ways of making that happen. Because if you consciously decide to switch something off, you can insist that the digital service HAS to work for everyone first.

Broadcasting is a really important part of this conversation. It’s not the only sector

undergoing change, but it is one of the most visible and one of the most valued. Millions and millions of people in the UK rely on and enjoy television. It remains one of the most trusted and widely used services we have – public service broadcasting plays a key role in bringing the nation together, and delivering news and public service programming to millions each week.

And that means that how we manage change in broadcasting really matters, not just for the public service broadcasters, not just for the media sector, but as part of a wider national shift.

Let’s imagine that the government DOES recommend that there is a switchover to fully

internet streamed TV at some point in the mid 2030s. What would have to be true to make this work?

• We’d need every home to be connected to decent broadband or have a good satellite or mobile service.

• We’d need a package to support the poorest to get broadband without paying more.

• We’d need simple interfaces to TVs – whether from the manufacturers or a plug in

  service from the PSBs, building on the early success of Freely.

• We’d need support to get people connected

• We’d need clear communication and help available when people need it.

This sounds rather powerful to me. Ensuring that every household has affordable

connectivity, which costs them no more than today, and yet with more choice. And 8 years to get there. That feels worth putting our energy behind.

Transitions like this are less about technology and all about people. Done well, they can help bring more people into a more connected, more capable digital society. So our starting point is that a managed TV transition is desirable. It doesn’t serve people well to leave them on older systems that offer a more limited experience when better options are available. It doesn’t serve anyone well to be left behind. The ambition should be to make the best possible experience available to everyone, and to use the TV transition as a vehicle to get more people able to participate online if they want to.

This won’t happen by default. Our view is that this requires a national, coordinated

approach, with clear accountability: clear ownership, shared standards, and a way of

measuring whether this is working for the UK as a whole.

And importantly, we’ve done this before. We’ve already shown in the UK that we can deliver major transitions successfully – whether that’s previous broadcasting switchovers, the move to chip and PIN, or going cashless on the London transport network.

Those transitions worked because they were carefully planned, clearly communicated and designed around how people actually behave. We need to take the same approach now, but apply it more broadly. No single sector can deliver all of that on its own. That’s why we think this needs to be approached as a shared national endeavour – bringing together government, regulators, industry and civil society. We hope that when the government issue their green paper in a month or two, we will see this approach suggested.

We have time to get this right. And if we do, and by looking more widely than just at TV, we can create a future where digital services are easier to use, more consistent, and more widely adopted. A future where more people can participate fully and confidently. And a future where the benefits of digital transformation are realised at scale. That’s good for individuals, and it’s good for the UK as a whole.

That’s the opportunity in front of us. And it’s why The Connection Project exists. We’re

working with partners across sectors to develop practical recommendations and a roadmap for change.

I’m really looking forward to discussing these issues with you today.