Superfast Broadband Advertising by HM Government

The government seems to be spending a lot of money on advertising their website both in the press and billboards Superfast GOV.UK

To me it seems a waste of taxpayers money, better spent on actually rolling out fibre to not spots.

The advertising has 2 potential benefits I can see.

Firstly, there is an expectation that getting people to upgrade to better speeds will allow them to make use of new services and therefore has economic benefits.

Secondly, a number of the BDUK projects (possibly all) have clawbacks in them if takeup goes above a certain amount (normally 20%). The money that then comes back can be used to invest in further expanding the network. The more people that connect to a BDUK cabinet the more money comes back to the local authority to invest in additional connections.

As long as these outweigh the costs of the marketing then the marketing was well spent. The question is will they and how will we ever know?

They are trying to show that they are pushing the whole issue. There IS an election coming

Or maybe, get everyone onto fibre, so that terrestrial TV frequencies can be sold off and then only the main channels available on 'freeview' -
would that be a bad thing??

People don't necessarily change their watching habits just because of fibre. I still tend to record things when they are on TV rather than watch them on streaming services. I use streaming either because I've missed something by accident or to watch things that aren't currently on TV.

In reply to a post by normcall:

Or maybe, get everyone onto fibre, so that terrestrial TV frequencies can be sold off and then only the main channels available on 'freeview' -
would that be a bad thing??

The "main channels" already occupy the majority of Freeview frequencies. Are you suggesting a major transmitter re-work to change their frequencies?

Have a read:- here

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-Feb-15 16:51:40)

In reply to a post by lmccann:

The government seems to be spending a lot of money on advertising their website both in the press and billboards Superfast GOV.UK

To me it seems a waste of taxpayers money, better spent on actually rolling out fibre to not spots.

100% agree!

Which IS why they are advertising it.. The money being spent on Advertising is tiny compared to the money they could potentially claw back to reinvest in said not spots by making people more aware,

Edited by Binary_Digit (Fri 13-Feb-15 17:02:07)

In reply to a post by Binary_Digit:

Which IS why they are advertising it.. The money being spent on Advertising is tiny compared to the money they could potentially claw back to reinvest in said not spots by making people more aware,

You've completely lost me there.

The principle is quite simple. The more people who take up "superfast" broadband under BDUK, the more likely that the "clawback" clauses in the contracts can be invoked which means money coming back into the relevant projects. So it might be that £1m spent on advertising might mean £4m in "clawback" for reinvestment. (The actual take up threshold for "clawback" will be specific to each BDUK sub-project, but it's generally thought to be around 20% of premises passed.

The further, less tangible benefit, is that it will increase economic activity and hence GDP and the tex revenue it will bring in. It might reduce the need to invest in roads and transport, greater efficiency and stimulate certain business activities. A bit like any other major piece of enabling infrastructure. Indeed the whole BDUK programme is predicated (according to permanent secretary Sue Owen) on, I believe, a 20:1 cost to benefit ratio for the economy. (HS2's ratio in comparison is much less than 2:1).

My problem with the ads so far is that they are bland, untargeted and don't tell a compelling story. I think a more targeted approach using mailshots as areas are enabled would be more effective (at least for BDUK areas), but it has to be recognised the aim seems to be general awareness, not just in BDUK areas.