Advanced Television

DSO

India cable black-out imminent

India government officials say that some 90 per cent of Mumbai’s cable homes have now been digitised. “Not so,” implies the Cable Operators Association (COA), who say the actual figure is “around 90 per cent”. India’s cable operators, who should have completed the switch from analogue signal distribution to digital by June, and were then […]

October 29, 2012By Chris Forrester

Ireland switchover to bring €533m windfall

The Republic or Ireland will net a windfall of up to €533 million from the switch to digital TV broadcasts. Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said the current auction of airwave space left free by the turning off of analogue broadcasts was officially projected to reap €185 million for the Exchequer, but he now hoped to […]

October 25, 2012

UK ends analogue era

The UK has ended more than 70 years of analogue broadcasting today with the completion of digital television switchover.  Olympic gold medallist Dame Mary Peters switched off the last analogue signals at the Divis transmitter, just outside Belfast and Freeview signals were boosted across Northern Ireland. Prime Minister David Cameron said: ‘The UK’s switch to […]

October 24, 2012

Ofcom: Local TV ‘muxco’ decision imminent

Over the past few weeks, the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has been getting on with the job of awarding digital transmission licences for the Local TV applications. The new channels will transmit on Freeview. However, the big prize, that of content playout, transmission responsibility and accountability for the management of the national digital channel ‘Muxco’ […]

October 22, 2012By Chris Forrester

Final stages of UK DSO underway

The final stages of the UK’s digital switchover will start on October 10th and be completed on October 23rd, when analogue TV services in Northern Ireland are turned off. Main stations at Limvady, Divis and Brougher Mountain, and 43 relay transmitters across the country will switch to a new high-power digital system for Freeview, reaching […]

October 9, 2012

South Africa starts ASO

South Africa’s Communications Minister, Mrs Dina Pule demonstrated its DVB-T2 digital terrestrial TV system for the nation’s local news media. The country’s commercial launch of DTT will take place in December, although trial signals are now being beamed. For almost the whole of next year the analogue and digital transmissions will co-exist, with plenty of […]

October 5, 2012By Chris Forrester

150,000 Irish homes will go dark on 24th

There has been a late surge in Irish homes switching to digital TV, with 50,000 making the changeover in recent weeks before the old analogue signal is switched off. But this leaves 150,000 of the 200,000 homes that will be reliant on digital TV needing to make the switch before the analogue TV signal is […]

October 3, 2012

India: STB deadline won’t be extended

Ruling out an extension of the deadline for digitisation of cable television beyond October 31st, India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has said Delhi is lagging behind other cities in this process. Soni has met with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and asked her to ensure that all households having cable TV connection install […]

October 1, 2012

France DSO much cheaper than expected

France spent less than half as much as planned during its digital TV switchover, according to France Tele Numerique, the body formed to oversee the migration. French daily Les Echos reports that the cost will total around €150 million – significantly less than the government’s initial estimate of €320 million. The switchover was completed before […]

September 28, 2012

India: 68% switch to digital TV

With the deadline for digitisation in India less than two months away, 68 per cent viewers have switched to digital television. The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry held a review of progress of the four metro cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — that are expected to complete the digitisation process by October 31st. […]

September 18, 2012