Digital television transition

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The digital television transition (also called the digital switchover or analogue switchoff, sometimes analog sunset) is the process in which analogue television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable TV conversion to digital cable.

The scale of the transition can vary: at one extreme, a small, low-power transmitter can be converted to digital. This is what happened at Ferryside and Llansteffan in the UK, and is normally conducted as a trial, although it can be a permanent change. At the other extreme, a whole country can be converted from analogue to digital television.

In many countries, a simulcast service is operated where a broadcast is made available to viewers in both analog and digital at the same time. As digital becomes more popular, it is likely that the existing analogue services will be removed. In some cases this has already happened, where a broadcaster has offered incentives to viewers to encourage them to switch to digital or simply switched their service regardless of whether they want to switch. In other cases government policies have been introduced to encourage or force the switchover process, especially with regard to terrestrial broadcasts.

Government intervention usually involves providing some funding for broadcasters and, in some cases monetary relief to viewers, to enable a switchover to happen by a given deadline.

The facility with which digital switchover can be achieved depends not only on the size of the area and number of transmitters to be converted, but also on the number of viewers who rely on the analogue signal as their primary or only means of TV reception. In Berlin, for example, most residents were using cable television, so only a small number of households needed the new equipment necessary for digital reception. On the other hand, only around 65% of UK households had access to multi-channel television as of summer 2005.^[1] This left around 10 million households who would be forced to convert to another means of receiving television by the time digital switchover reaches their area.

Contents 1 Purpose of the transition 2 Around the world 2.1 Transition completed 2.2 Transition in progress 3 Digital-to-analog converters 4 European deployment 4.1 United Kingdom 5 North American deployment 5.1 United States 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Purpose of the transition

This section requires expansion.

Motivation behind the transition includes

• Potentially higher image and sound quality over analog broadcasts (though in practice it can be worse).
• Freeing radio spectrum space, which can then be auctioned off for other purposes.
• Multiplexed subchannels—which can carry entirely separate programming.

[edit] Around the world

[edit] Transition completed

•  Luxembourg was the first country to complete the move to digital broadcasting on September 1, 2006.
•  Belgium (Flanders): the situation is rather complex, as media regulations are under regional legislation. Flanders switched off analogue television on November 3, 2008, because coverage is already at 99 percent. Wallonia has not yet announced a date for the switchover.
•  Netherlands moved to digital broadcasting on December 11, 2006. The switch-off was helped greatly by the fact that about 90% of the households subscribe to cable systems which continue to use analog distribution, thus their old tuners continued to be useful.
•  Finland ceased analog terrestrial transmissions nationwide at 4am, September 1, 2007^[2] (switch-off was previously planned for the midnight after August 31 but a few extra hours were added for technical reasons). Cable TV viewers continued to receive analogue broadcasts until the end of February 2008.
•  Andorra completed its switch-off on September 25, 2007.^[3]
•  Sweden: The switch-off of the analogue terrestrial network progressed region–by–region. It started on the island of Gotland on September 15, 2005, and was completed on October 15, 2007, when the last analogue SVT1 transmitters in Scania and Blekinge were shut down. ^[4] Cable distributors are allowed to continue broadcasting analogue television.
•  Switzerland began with the switch-off on July 24, 2006 in Ticino and continued with Engadin on November 13, 2006. The switch-off was completed on 26 November, 2007.
•  Germany started the switch-off in the Berlin area, beginning on 1 November 2002 and completing on 4 August 2003. "Simulcast" digital transmissions started in other parts of the country in an effort to prepare for a full switchover. The switch-off was completed on November 25, 2008.

[edit] Transition in progress

•  Australia: The Australian government originally planned a switch-off in 2008. This has now been delayed to 2010 for some regional areas and to 2013 for the rest of the country.^[5][6] Until that time, free-to-air stations will be simulcast, along with digital only channels like ABC2. Since 1999, legislation has required all locally made free-to-air television transmissions to be in 16:9 widescreen format. Cable television networks began simulcasting in 2004 and analog cable services were switched off in April 2007.
•  Austria began analogue switch-off on March 5, 2007, progressing from the west to the east.^[7]
•  Bulgaria will complete its analog switch-off in December 2012.
•  Brazil began free-to-air HD digital transmissions, after a period of test broadcasts, on December 2, 2007 in São Paulo, expanding in January 2008 to Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte.^[8] Digital broadcasts will be phased into the other 23 state capitals by the end of 2009, and to the remaining cities by December 31, 2013.^[9] Analogue and digital simulcasts will continue until June 29, 2016, when analogue will be discontinued. The main broadcasters (Globo, Record, Band, SBT and RedeTV!) are simulcasting in analogue and digital broadcast, in standard definition and 1080i high definition.
•  Belgium (Wallonia): Flanders switched off analogue television on November 3, 2008. But Wallonia has not yet announced a date and is expected to follow the European dates because of geographic difficulties in covering the whole region. In Wallonia, there is already an 80 percent DTT coverage.
•  Canada: The main FTA broadcasters (CBC, CTV, and Global) have launched HD streams of their programming in limited markets such as Toronto and Vancouver. Originally, unlike in the other countries, Canada was allowing the market to determine when the analogue switch-off begins. As a result, currently analogue and digital broadcasts co-exist, with virtually the only way to receive Canadian digital TV in most areas being via cable or satellite TV. In Toronto it is possible to pick up DTV over the air; in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City a partial set of channels (most often CBC only) are offered - primarily as a vehicle for limited HDTV deployments. Much of Canada has over-the-air access to US border stations, most of which offer ATSC DTV. Signal strength and quality varies widely. New TV's and DVD recorders often include ATSC tuners but are not required to do so; availability of basic converters for existing NTSC TV's is limited.^[10] As of May 2007^[update] there are fewer than 20 digital television stations in Canada. On May 17, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC, Canada's broadcasting authority) ruled that television stations would be forced to switch to ATSC digital broadcasting by 31 August 2011, with minor exceptions in remote areas where analogue transmissions will not cause interference. ^[11] (Wikinews)

•  China The switch-off is scheduled to be in 2015.^[12]
•  Colombia plans to close down analogue in 1 January 2020.
•  Croatia plans to close down analogue broadcasting in 2010.
•  Czech Republic started the switch-off in September 2007 and should finish by November 2011 (some regions June 2012). The areas of Domažlice, West Bohemia, Prague, Central Bohemia, South Bohemia have already switched off analog broadcasting of ČT2.
•  Denmark began digital transmission in March 2006 and the analogue network will be closed at the end of October 2009.^[13][14]
•  Estonia In Estonia analog switch-off date has been set for July 1st 2010.^[15]
•  France will have completed the switch-off in 2011. 80% of the population will be able to see TNT in 2008.
•  Greece: the switch-off will complete after the end of 2011. [1].
•  Hong Kong's analogue broadcasting is planned to be switched off by 2012.^[16]
•  Hungary is scheduled to switch off analogue broadcasting in 1 January 2012.
•  Ireland's broadcaster RTÉ plans to make digital television available to most of the population by 2010 [2], and the switchoff is planned to be complete by 2012 [3].
•  Italy's government aims to complete the digital switchover by 2012.
•  Japan is also running an intense nationwide campaign announcing the planned switchover to digital on July 24, 2011. Many television stations around the country have already begun broadcasting simultaneously in digital.
•  Kenya's Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) announced that the country will start digital broadcasting in 2008 following preliminary work by the government. Kenya will be among the first countries in Africa to implement digital broadcasting.^[17]
•  Mexico has a 20-year plan to switch, with the target year of 2022 for the analogue shut-off.^[18] Some digital signals are already on-air, the first being Tijuana's XETV - an English-language affiliate of The CW serving primarily San Diego, California. Groups of cities which are required to simulcast digitally are added in descending order of size, with full coverage of the smallest centres required for 2021.
•  Malaysia: Information Ministry was planning to shut down the country's analogue television system in phases beginning from 2009 and set to convert to full digital TV in 2015.
•  New Zealand: It was announced on the 29 November 2007 that the analogue TV broadcasts will end within the next 6 to 10 years and expect a switch off date to be announced by 2012. Digital broadcast via Freeview become available late 2007. More recent estimates of this switch-off date have been in the area of 2013 to 2015 ^[19]A tentative date will be set when digital uptake reaches 60% (55% reached as of November 2008).^[20]
•  Norway: The switch-off of the analogue transmissions started in March 2008 and will the progress region-by-region. The last analogue transmitters are scheduled to close down by the end of 2009.
•  Poland: The analog broadcast will stop on either 12 December 2012 or in 2014.^[21]
•  Portugal's government aims to complete the digital switchover by 2012; digital broadcasts will start on 29 April 2009.
•  Peru plans to close down analogue in 2020.
•  Philippines: the National Telecommunications Commission will terminate all analogue television transmission on December 31, 2015. Digital television in the Philippines will be launched by ABS-CBN in 2009 using either DVB-T or ISDB-T.
•  Russia has announced that the switch-off is to be completed in 2015.^[22]
•  Serbia: first launched DTT Channel in 2008. The government aims to complete ASO by 2011.^[23]
•  Slovakia: the government aims to complete the digital switchover by 2012.
•  Slovenia: the switch-off will be completed in 2010.
•  South Africa started switch-off in November 2008 in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and should be completed by mid 2011.
•  South Korea's analogue transmissions will be terminated nationwide on December 31, 2012, and major broadcasters like MBC, SBSor other affiliated networks, KBS are broadcasting both analog and digital TV in most major city.
•  Spain: the switch-off will be completed on or before April 3, 2010.^[24]
•  Ukraine: analogue transmissions will be terminated on 17 July 2015.[4]. Switch-over commenced on 1 April 2009.
•  United Kingdom: Following a technical trial in a small community in Wales on 30 March 2005, the "digital switchover" began in the UK on 17 October 2007 with Whitehaven in Cumbria (Border),^[25] and is proceeding to a transmitter switchover timetable, implemented by region. The last transmitters are London, Tyne Tees and Ulster, that will be switched off in 2012.^[26] The process is managed by Digital UK, with some viewers eligible for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme.
•  United States: By no later than June 12, 2009 following Congressional and Presidential approval on February 4, 2009,^[27] all full-power US television will be digital,^[28] and analogue transmissions terminated, according to legislation setting this deadline signed into law in early 2006. At noon September 8, 2008, major television stations in the Wilmington, North Carolina media market turned off analog; Hawaii followed on January 15, 2009. Final LPTV switchover dates have not yet been determined.
  Further information: DTV transition in the United States

[edit] Digital-to-analog converters

After the switch from analog to digital broadcasts is complete, analog TVs will be incapable of receiving over-the-air broadcasts without the addition of a set-top converter box. Consequently, a digital converter box – an electronic device that connects to an analog television – must be used in order to allow the television to receive digital broadcasts.^[29] In the United States, the government is subsidizing the purchase of such boxes via their coupon-eligible converter box program, funded by a small part of the billions of dollars brought in by the spectrum auction of 12 of the upper UHF channels. The program is managed by the Department of Commerce through its National Telecommunications and Information Administration.^[30]

[edit] European deployment

[edit] United Kingdom

The DTV transition began in the United Kingdom as Freeview, broadcasting additional standard-definition (SD) programming using DVB-T. The United Kingdom has a phased switchover based upon region, with the last analogue signals to be shut down in 2012.^[31]

[edit] North American deployment

[edit] United States

All US full-power analog TV broadcasts will end by June 12, 2009.^[32] New television devices that receive signals over-the-air, including pocket sized portable televisions, personal computer video capture card tuners and DVD recorders, have been required to include ATSC digital tuners since March 1, 2007.^[33]

On September 8, 2008, Wilmington, North Carolina became the first city in America to fully switchover from analog to digital broadcasts. All analog signals were terminated at noon. This switchover was a test by the FCC to make further improvements to the transition process before the whole nation gets switched over to digital.^[34]. By midnight on February 17, 2009, the original cut-off date set by Congress, 641 stations representing 36 percent of U.S. full-power broadcasters were transmitting exclusively in digital.^[35] Currently, most of the remaining full-power U.S. broadcasters are beaming their signals in both analog and digital formats. LPTV stations will not yet be forced to go digital, but many have still been forced to change channels to those below 51, possibly deciding to flash-cut at a later date.

In a recent study, 70% of over-the-air viewers expected to get a DTV converter box, 10% would switch to pay TV services, and 20% would abandon TV altogether.^[36] Based on this survey data and considering that 13-15% of TV viewers depend on over-the-air TV,^[37][38] 3% of the overall TV viewership could be lost due to the DTV conversion. Potential negative impacts on TV stations include reduced TV advertising and pledge drive revenue.

Cable TV systems are not required to convert, but must-carry rules will require local stations to be carried in analog for at least three years after the over-the-air cutoff, until early 2012. Must-carry rules requiring digital-only subchannels to be carried have been a source of contention.

[edit] See also

• Digital UK
• List of digital television deployments by country
• Digital television

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikinews has related news: Finnish terrestrial analogue TV network shut down

• EU Switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting
• Digital UK (English Version)