Only 18% of Italian homes ready for DVB-T2
June 28, 2019
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
An estimated 17.8 million households in Italy, or 82.1 per cent of the total, are not equipped to receive future DVB-T2 broadcasts.
The data comes from research conducted by the Ugo Bordoni Foundation (FUB), in collaboration with Auditel-Ipsos, during November 2018.
Of the 21.6 million DTT households in Italy, 25 per cent can receive DVB-T MPEG-2 broadcasts; 56.7 per cent DVB-T MPEG-4; 11.3 per cent DVB-T2 MPEG-4; and 6.6 per cent DVB-T2 HEVC.
This means in practice that only 17.9 per cent or 3.87 million households are ready for the switchover to DVB-T2.
The research estimates that the TV sets could be upgraded on average in 8,9 years or earlier in the case of incentives.
Italy should start the process of abandoning the DVB-T/MPEG-2 standard from September 2021, with a transitional period for the implementation of DVB-T/MPEG-4 or DVB-T2, with a deadline of June 30th 2022 for the deployment of DVB-T2.