The government needs to provide "greater certainty" over the timing for digital switchover in order to push digital growth, TV regulator Ofcom has recommended in a new report.

Published today, the report - ordered by culture secretary Tessa Jowell - said: "We believe that switchover is desirable and achievable; it would substantially improve the structure of the broadcasting market and benefit the wider economy. Less than six years since its launch, more than half of UK homes have digital TV. In areas where there is a choice between free-to-view and pay digital TV, take-up is around 60 per cent.

"We expect digital take-up to continue to grow strongly over the next two years. Thereafter, its growth is likely to slow. Ofcom's projections suggest that digital take-up will level off at around 80 per cent of households. The market alone will not deliver switchover. It is time for the UK digital TV project to change gear and move from planning to implementation. Greater certainty over the timing of switchover would be an important step.

"A new implementation body should be established. It should have the necessary funding, remit, leadership, resources and sufficient independence to encourage greater take-up of digital TV and to manage the difficult process of full switchover in the near future."

Ofcom added that it had been in "intense" discussions with the government about the practicalities of switchover and has subsequently made several appropriate recommendations. "Switchover should be a region-by-region occurrence, limiting the scale of consumer disruption. It would be practical for switchover to be a rolling programme of regional switchovers, taking about four years to complete after two years of initial preparation. The regional element would allow the necessary technical preparations to be undertaken in each area without the costs and risks of a national switchover. If switchover were to occur between 2007 and the end of 2010, the decision to fire the starting gun would need to have been taken early in 2005.

"The example of analogue switchover in Berlin suggests that it would be useful for some analogue TV channels to be switched off before others. One or more analogue channels would be switched off six months ahead of the others to enable the digital terrestrial signals to be boosted to full strength. Switching off one or two channels would allow areas currently without any DTT reception to begin receiving DTT signals. It would also demonstrate to consumers the imminence of switchover and the need to purchase digital converter boxes. The remaining analogue signals would then be turned off at the set date in each region and continuing information and assistance would be provided for some months after switchover is completed."

The report can be read in full on the Ofcom website.