Spain: Only 10% of TVs will be ready for DVB-T2
May 4, 2017
From David Del Valle in Madrid
In five years 90 per cent of the existing 37.4 million TV sets in Spain will become obsolete with Spaniards being obliged to renew them or buy an adapter due to the implementation of the DVB-T2 standard.
Currently, just 10 per cent of the TV sets existing in the market are ready for the new standard. There are even 12 million TV sets with no HD capacity. Even worse, over half (54.5 per cent) the 3.12 million TV sets sold last year will be obsolete in less than 5 year’s time, or will need an adapter to watch DTT.
To mitigate the situation, the TV industry is urging the Government to step in and force the electronic manufacturers to sell TV sets with a DVB-T2 demodulator and a MPEG 2/4 integrated from January 1st 2018 onwards.
Furthermore, Spaniards still have to face another DTT migration of frequencies. The second digital dividend will be completed in 2020. TV operators will have to leave the 700 MHz band to use 5G services, forcing the viewers to retune their TV sets and readapt the aerials. The Administration will invest €300,000 this year to raise awareness of the migration process.