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List of digital television deployments by country

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The transition to Digital television is a process that follows different paces around the world. Although digital satellite television is now commonplace and will soon render analogue satellite broadcasts obsolete, the switch to digital cable and terrestrial has taken longer.

This is a list of the situation in many countries.

Contents

Australia

Terrestrial

All major capital city television stations, and many regional stations, now simulcast in both analogue (PAL-B) and digital (DVB-T) formats. Standard definition is the most common format—by law, broadcasters must deliver 100% of their feed in SD, and at least 20 hours a week of this must be simulcast in high definition format. It is believed that around 25% of houses are connected to digital.

Commercial stations are not yet permitted to multi-channel broadcast, unless the programming content is the same on multiple channels (for example: HD simulcasts, multiple camera angles, etc.). SBS has a second channel (a world news channel), and ABC launched ABC2 in March 2005, showing mostly arts, cultural and local/regional news and information. Legislation explicitly prohibits multichannels showing anything considered as "entertainment".

Broadcasters need a special license for datacasting. In January 2005, there is are a number of datacasting services available only in Sydney, including a program guide (Channel 4), ABC news, sport, and weather items (Channel 41), [ChannelNSW] Government and Public Information (Channel 45), Australian Christian Channel (Channel 46), MacquarieBank TV (Channel 47), SportsTAB (Channel 48), Expo Home Shopping (Channel 49), and Federal parliamentary broadcasts (Audio only).

In December 2003, the country's first digital-only broadcaster began—Tasmanian Digital Television started as a Network Ten affiliate in Tasmania (Hobart initially, Launceston followed in July 2004—the rest of the state is to follow). The introduction of this channel has caused digital television to have a much larger uptake in Hobart, as opposed to the minimal attention the format has received in the rest of the country.

The Australian government is requiring that all stations will switch to solely digital broadcasting by 2012, so the current analogue television frequencies can be freed for other uses. The original cut off date for free to air TV was 2008, but was extended due to low update to the new digital format. The low uptake is thought to be the lack of incentives to adopt digital TV, other than better picture and sound quality.

See also

External links

Regulators and organisations

Broadcasters and DTV Channel operators

Belgium

In Belgium, over 94% of all households have cable television, so (analog) terrestrial broadcasting is only used in very limited cases, like for example mobile viewing.

Cable

Telenet, the main cable operator in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) has around 25 analogue TV channels which are also available digitally (MHP over DVB-C). In total about 80 TV channels are available digitally. This includes some TV channels that we already available before: Canal Digitaal (Dutch name) or Canal Digital (French name) which is a pay-tv channel broadcasting several SDTV channels over one DVB-C multiplex. Current cable customers need not pay an extra subscription for about 35 digital channels, but they must purchase a set-top box in order to be able to view the digital channels and use the interactive services. HDTV is expected from summer 2006 courtesy of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Terrestrial

The two Belgian public TV stations, VRT on the Flemish side and RTBF on the Walloon side, are also broadcasting all their channels in DVB-T. VRT can be received all over Flanders, whereas RTBF channels can only be received around Brussels and the west of Wallonia from Tournai. Both also have an international channel on digital satellite (DVB-S) called BVN (as a cooperation between the Flemish EEN and the Dutch NOS) and RTBF Sat.

Mobile

With the rise in mobile digital receivers (DVB-H) Belgacom is showing some interest in building a DVB-H network.

IPTV

Belgacom is offering digital television on ADSL. Its offering has been extended with two optional bouquets : one providing movies and one selection for families (including cartoons, National Geographic, etc

The Belgian commercial tv stations are currently only available on cable and ADSL distribution. Terrestrial broadcasting is limited to public service TV stations. This is due to the high adoption-rate of cable (94%) in Belgium wich makes it uninteresting to broadcast commercially.

See also

Brazil

Terrestrial

The SBTVD was proposed by government in the end of 2005 - being able to be compatible with either ISDB, ATSC or DVB. On 8 March the final word was said by the President Lula da Silva: the SBTVD will be fully based on Japanese ISDB [link] . The standard will be terrestrial, free and the access "country-wide". The commercial release is slated for September 2006.

See also

External links

Canada

Terrestrial

The CRTC has adopted the same digital television standard for Canadian stations as the United States. The CRTC decided not to enforce a single date for transitioning to digital broadcasts, opting to let the economy decide when the switchover will occur.

CITY Toronto was the first Canadian station to provide digital terrestrial service. As of 2005, other digital stations on-air include the CBC and Radio-Canada stations in Toronto and Montreal, as well as CTV's CFTO Toronto and CIVT Vancouver, and CKXT (Toronto 1). This list is not necessarily exhaustive and other station launches are pending, although all are in the major markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Also, this does not include digital or high definition versions of specialty services.

See also

External links

Czech Republic

Terrestrial

Experimental projects with DVB-T started in 2000. Final 21 October 2005 was launched multiplex A (DVB-T) with 3 channels of Česká televize and one of TV Nova and radio channels of Český rozhlas. Broadcasting can be seen in Prague, Central Bohemian Region, in surrounding areas of Brno and Ostrava. On April 12, 2006, six digital terrestrial television licenses were awarded to commercial broadcasters. The receivers of the licenses were: Z1, TV Pohoda, Regionální televizni agentura (RTA), Febio TV, TV Barrandov and Óaka. Z1 will provide a news service, TV Pohoda will run provide a children's service, Óaka will deliver a music service, and Febio TV & TV Barrandov will provide general programming services. It is planned that analogue transmissions will cease in 2012.

External links

Regulators and organisations

Denmark

Terrestrial

Free-to-air DVB-T will be launched on 31 March 2006 with the transmission of the national public service channels DR1 and DR2, and TV2 and the regional TV2 TV channels. Other private TV channels are expected to follow suit. All analogue terrestrial TV transmission will end on 1 November 2009.

External links

Faroe Islands

Digital terestrial television is now available to two-thirds the population of the Faroe Islands, offering 24 channels.

Finland

Finland took digital television into use on August 27th in 2001. As of 2006, digital television broadcasts from the A and B multiplexes can be seen by 99.9% of the population and those from multiplex C by 78%. In addition, many cable providers in the biggest cities provide television broadcasts, including pay TV, in digital form. Digital television broadcasts can be received according to the DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S, and DVB-H specifications. There are altogether 15 television and 4 radio channels at the moment. In addition to the current analogue channels: YLE's TV1 and TV2, MTV3, and Nelonen, YLE24 (24-hour news), YLE Teema (culture, education, and science-related), Urheilukanava (sports), SubTV (mostly re-runs of old tv-series and movies), and SEXTV.FI (pornography) are broadcast in digital form. All channels except Canal +, Canal+ Film1, Canal+ Film2, and Canal+ Sport are broadcast free of charge.

According to a survey by Finnpanel in October 2005, 33% of all households have digital television sets or set-top boxes. Almost half of the households have the ability to receive digital broadcasts. Cable households are far behind. Availability of DVB-C hardware is still limited. For example, there are no television sets for DVB-C available as of 2006.

Under the current schedule analogue transmissions will cease on August 31, 2007. All stations will go offline simultaneously.

External links

France

Terrestrial

France is quite late in the deployment of digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) known under the acronym of TNT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre ), however it has formally arrived on the 31 March 2005 after a short testing period. Like Freeview it will support many new channels as well as the current terrestrial television stations. The FTA channels currently available are TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal + (when programmes are non-encrypted), France 5, M6, ARTE, Direct 8, W9, TMC, NT1, NRJ 12, La Chaîne Parlementaire and France 4. A further four FTA television licences have also been awarded to BFM TV, i>Télé, Radio Europe 2 TV and Gulli which started broadcasts by October 2005. France Ô and possibly TV5 Monde are expected some time in 2006.

Additional pay TV channels were launched in September 2005 using the MPEG4 format, unlike the rest of Europe which currently uses MPEG2. These channels are Canal + Cinéma, Canal + Sport, Paris Première, Planète, Canal J, Eurosport France, TPS Star, TF6, LCI, and AB1. Canal + Sport, Paris Première and TPS Star have non encrypted programs at certain times in the evening.

See also

External links

Germany

Terrestrial

In a two step process that took place in 2003 analogue terrestrial TV broadcasting in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg was switched off to be replaced by DVB-T, which offers improved reception (especially in cars and with set top aerials) and because it offers a selection of more than 20 channels it establishes itself as a free competitor to cable TV.

During 2004 and early 2005 the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse also ceased analogue broadcasts in many areas. As of June 2005 only Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg have completely ceased analogue broadcasts.

During 2005 Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Bavaria will also commence the transition to digital only broadcasts.

Other metropolitan areas are to follow in 2006. Terrestrial reception had lost most of its users in the 1990s and is believed to get a comeback now, especially in the mobile area.

Satellite

Since early in the decade most of the 30+ TV stations broadcast their satellite signal in both analogue and digital (DVB-S) forms. There is currently a single Pay TV satellite operation in Germany Premiere World, which (in form of its former owner Leo Kirch) got into serious fiscal trouble due to its early and proprietary (Betacrypt, d-box) enforcement of DTV.

Broadcast is always in DVB and SDTV PAL. No German network has announced HDTV broadcasts yet, but the pan-European network Euro1080 started in 2004. All analogue television broadcasting in Germany are to be terminated by law by 2010.

Cable

Cable transmission is still mostly analogue, again with the exception of Premiere (DVB-C) and some less important stations that did not fit any more into the analogue band. This situation is caused by the long and slow process of selling the infrastructure from former monopolist Deutsche Telekom to others, which for some years stopped nearly all new investments in that area.

See also

Greece

Terrestrial

In January 2006, ERT launched free-to-air Digital Terrestrial Television (DVB-T) with three channels called Prisma+, Cine+ and Sport+. The first channel, Prisma+, is targeted at disabled people, Cine+ broadcasts movies, and Sport+ broadcasts sport programming. A set-top box is all that is required to view these channels. For the first 2 years, programs will last 6 to 10 hours each day (Cine+ already offers a 22 hour program). However, ERT is planning to make its own digital productions in order to deliver a 24 hour program for all three channels. As of March 2006 at least 65% of the Greek population is able to view DTT.

Ireland

Terrestrial

Ireland has repeatedly tested DVB-T from RTÉ Network Limited Three Rock Mountain transmitter, with relatively long tests in 1998 and 2001, and shorter tests in 2004, with a single multiplex carrying the 4 Irish analogue terrestrial channels on both UHF (channel 26) and VHF (channel D). These were under temporary licences for testing, which are regularly awarded.

A nationwide series of 6 high-power UHF multiplexes has been allocated since the 1990s, and a franchise to operate these was awarded to a commercial firm, It's TV. However, the collapse of ITV Digital ensured that they were unable to receive any funding, and their franchise lapsed due to non-completion in 2002. They never got to the stage of broadcasting a test signal. An unusual regulatory limitation exists on any use of these allocations meaning that one multiplex can be reclaimed at any time to transmit Northern Irish television stations.

RTÉ are believed to be financially unable to operate a DTT network on their own accord, and no other commercial interest in the system has been expressed, leading the state itself, through the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to instigate tests itself, with tenders for transmission equipment for the Three Rock Mountain and Clermont Carn RTÉNL sites having been issued in 2005.

Technical details and regulation

During 1998 and 1999, a series of documents released by the then Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, now Comreg, provided a frequency plan for a 6 multiplex network, and implementation details for this. 12 transmitters were planned for in the initial frequency allocation, and the original documents also stated that single frequency networks were to be used to provide signal in difficult terrain areas with the main transmitters operating as a multi-frequency network. The network, as proposed in 1998/9, was to use an 8K FFT, 64QAM, 2/3 viterbi coding and a 1/16 guard interval on MFN services. SFN services would be identical barring the adoption of a 1/8 guard interval.

At least 85% of all data time over a 24 hour period on a multiplex was ordered to be used for television services, with a maximum of 20% being used for "other services" at any time.

Italy

Terrestrial

In Italy the DVB-T (Digital Terrestrial Television, known as Televisione Digitale Terrestre in Italian) is expanding rapidly. Almost every major network in Italy—including RAI, Mediaset, La7, MTV—started digital transmissions (continuing with analog television transmissions at the same time anyway until the transition is completed). Starting from January 2005 some networks (notably Mediaset and La7) started offering pay TV services through a prepaid smartcard (soccer games, usually three euros per game).

At the time of writing (May 2005) about 60% of the Italian territory is covered by digital television signal and the entire system is considered in an experimental phase until July 2005. By parliamentary law, Italy will definitely switch to digital television by December 31, 2006 with a 100% coverage of the national territory, although there is the possibility of a delay. The Italian government (since Berlusconi, the actual premier, is the owner of Mediaset television network) is currently promoting the new standard by granting a financial contribution for the purchase of a digital television decoder.

See also

External links

Regulators and organisations

Broadcasters and DTV Channel operators

Japan

Terrestrial

Japan adopted a unique DTV system named ISDB-T. ISDB-T service was initiated on December 1, 2003 in the Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya metropolitan areas of Japan. Analog terrestrial television broadcasts in Japan should cease on July 24, 2011 according to the current Japanese broadcasting law.

See also

External links

Regulators and organisations

Domestic promotion

Industrial

Satellite

Conditional acesss

Broadcasters and DTV Channel operators

Malaysia

Malaysia plans to launch a one-year free-to-air DTV trial covering about 500,000 households in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and some surrounding areas from mid-2006. The government will provide some families with 2000 set-top boxes to conduct studies on viewer acceptance.

Programs at the initial stage will last four to six hours each day.

Nationwide implementation is planned to begin by the year 2007 or 2008.

The Malaysian government has proposed to shut down all analogue television services in the country by the year 2015, planned to begin in 2008.

Malta

Two commercial licences were awarded in Malta in 2005.

On July 2005, Multiplus Ltd started commercial operations in direct competition to the existing dominant cable operator utilising a total of 8 frequencies. Maltacom plc is also expected to offer DTV services but as of December 2005 no date has been announced.

Netherlands

Terrestrial

DVB-T transmissions in the Netherlands are provided commercially by KPN daughter company Digitenne. They offer 25 TV channels and 16 radio channels. Currently only Nederland 2 is free-to-air.

Analogue switch-off is scheduled around 2007, but NOS reported that they would stop broadcasting analogue on air from January 2006 which would make free reception of public TV impossible.

In May 2006 the government announced that analogue broadcasting would stop on 30th October 2006. The Netherlands will be the first country in Europe that has entirely switched over to digital terrestrial broadcasting. The public television channels Nederland 1, Nederland 2, Nederland 3 and the regional television channels will be free-to-air.

Cable

All the major cable companies are offering at least some digital services, with 1080i being rolled out in many areas in time for the 2006 Football World Cup. In 2008 at least 97% of the televison stations will broadcast in HD.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, digital television is confined to Sky's satellite service (available nationwide) and TelstraClear's cable service (available in Wellington and Christchurch). A free-to-air digital terrestrial and satellite service called FreeView will be launched in 2007.

Norway

Terrestrial

The introduction of DVB-T is regulated by [the ministry of culture and church affairs]. So far Norway has developed slowly on DVB-T compared to main European countries, but pace is picking up as the Norwegian government now wants to close analogue TV broadcasting by 2009. In June 2002, a 12-year nationwide licence, including the roll-out of infrastructure, was publicly announced, met only by the application of [Norges Televisjon as (NTV)], a joint venture between the state-owned broadcaster [NRK] and the leading private broadcaster [TV2]. In February 2004, the Norwegian parliament passed the final regulations on digital broadcasting to [the ministry of culture and church affairs], leaving the ministry to create a licence agreement for NTV. The ministry showed their proposal for a licence in December 2004. NTV was faced with more complicated regulations than they expected (such as the licence running already from roll-out of infrastructure). Therefore, in February 2005 NTV applied for extending their licence period from 12 yrs to 15 yrs, and consequently the ministry publicly announced the licence once again, announcement period expiring May 2, 2005. If licence is granted NTV during 2005, the company says it plans to roll-out infrastructure during 2006-2009, offering the Norwegian public between 15 and 18 TV stations; of them NRK1, NRK2, TV2, TV2 Xtra and a local channel. The EFTA competition authorities, [ESA], has protested on the application process, saying the ministry is not in position to grant the DVB-T licence to a state-owned company like NTV, but ministry says this protest will not affect their decision. [Here] is a press release in Norwegian from the ministry dated March 7, 2005 announcing the extended licence for digital television.

Spain

Spanish digital television market began in 1997, with the start of two competing pay per view platforms (Canal Satélite digital and Vía Digital). The merger of the former created Digital Plus in 2002.

Terrestrial

The case of digital terrestrial television is very alike to the failure of ITV Digital in the United Kingdom. Digital terrestrial television was introduced in the country by the pay per view platform Quiero Television. In may 2002, state wide operators were required to start broadcasting in DVB-T. Yet, Quiero TV ceased transmissions in 2002 after a commercial failure . Unlike the UK, the three and half multiplexes left by the platform were not reassigned to other operators, and so 5 channels were squashed into a single multiplex.

On November 30, 2005, Digital Terrestrial Television was relaunched as a free service with 20 channels and 14 radio stations, along with 23 regional and local language channels in their respective areas. Currently about 80% of the population can receive DTT, and this figure is expected to reach 90% by 2008. The channels are broadcast simultaneously with the analog signal and each multiplex has a minimum of 4 channels each.

Cable

Digital cable is slowly replacing the aging analogue service of the major cable provider Ono.

See also

Sweden

Terrestrial

In 1996, the Swedish parliament decided that terrestrial digital broadcasts (DVB-T) were the future of terrestrial broadcasting. The government presented its proposition to the parliament in March 2003. In the early summer of 2003, the parliament committed to a plan where the analog terrestrial broadcasting would be shut down in February 2008. As of May 2004, 23% of the population had access to equipment for receiving digital broadcasts. The digital broadcasts cover 90% of the population, and the plan is to cover 99.8% before the termination of the analog network.

All channels are free to choose whether they want to be encrypted or free-to-air, except for the channels from Utbildningsradion and Sveriges Television and the TV4-channel which must be free-to-air. As of may 2005, most Swedes can receive about 25 channels through the terrestrial network, but only about eight of them are free-to-air. To watch encrypted channels, a decryption card from Boxer TV Access is needed.

The analogue shutdown began 2005-09-19, when the analogue transmitters covering the island of Gotlandia went offline. Two more main transmitters (in Gävle and Motala) were shut down later in 2005. The remaining transmitters will shut down at set dates[link] spread over the following two years. The shutdown of the Malmö transmitter scheduled at 2007-10-15 ends the transition, leaving all terrestrial broadcasts digital.

The decision to cancel analogue broadcasts does not necessarily affect cable television, whose viewers for the most part can continue without digital set-top boxes beyond 2008.

The parliament and the ministry of culture determine what channels are allowed to broadcast digitally. The level of governmental control has generated some controversy.

External links

United Kingdom

The UK has three major forms of digital television, a direct-to-home satellite service provided by British Sky Broadcasting (commonly known as Sky), digital cable television services provided by NTL, Telewest, and WightCable and a free-to-air digital terrestrial service called Freeview.

Terrestrial

The initial attempt at launching a digital terrestrial broadcasting service, ONdigital (later called ITV Digital), was unsuccessful and the company went into liquidation. Some observers have argued that this failure stemmed from the Government's eagerness in having sold off too much TV spectrum to launch Channel 5 (the last UK terrestrial analogue channel), and ONdigital's short-sightedness in over-extending its use of available bandwidth: using poor signal encoding to maintain compatibility with early set-top boxes, optimising their broadcasts for capacity rather than reliability, and cramming too many channels into the available bandwidth.

ITV Digital was replaced in late 2002 by Freeview, which uses the same DVB-T technology, but with higher levels of error correction and more robust (but lower-capacity) modulation on the "Public Service" multiplexes in an attempt to counter the reception problems which dogged its predecessor. Rather than concentrating on Pay TV services, Freeview uses the available capacity to provide a free-to-air service that includes all the existing five free-to-air analogue terrestrial channels and about twenty new digital channels. All services are transmitted in SDTV mode.

March 31, 2004 saw the return of a limited pay-television offering to the digital terrestrial platform with the launch of Top Up TV. This new service is designed to appeal to those who do not want to pay the high subscription fees that Sky Television and the Cable networks demand. The service carries some of the UK’s most watched channels including the Discovery Channel, UKTV Gold, Discovery Real Time, British Eurosport and Cartoon Network. The 10 channels are split into 5 different slots and broadcast for only part of the day.

2005 saw the first areas of the United Kingdom losing their analogue signal in a pilot test. The residents of Ferryside and Llansteffan in Carmarthenshire, Wales who had not already upgraded to digital television were given a free set-top box to receive the Freeview television service, which includes Channel 4 (previously unavailable terrestrially from transmitters in Wales) and S4C~2, which broadcasts sessions of the National Assembly for Wales. Digital transmissions for this pilot commenced in December 2004, at which time a message was added to the analogue picture advising viewers that the analogue services would end in February 2005. If the pilot is a success it will have paved the way for switch-over to digital television signals throughout the United Kingdom by the Government's unofficial deadline of 2012.

The year 2005 also saw the announcement by Ofcom about the proposed analogue switch off plans for the UK. It is proposed that the switch off will progress on an ITV region by region basis starting in 2008 starting in the Border Television region and ending in the Channel Television region in 2012. The coverage of the 3 PSB multiplexes will be the same as that enjoyed by the current analogue TV stations, while the 3 commercial multiplexes will cover approximately 90% of the UK population. To improve long standing interference issues in the Meridian and Anglia franchise areas a small number of new transmitters will be brought into service when those regions are converted in 2010 and 2011. These plans were confirmed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell, on September 15. [link]

Satellite

On November 1, 2005 ITV turned off encryption on all of its satellite based signals, following the lead from the BBC. These transmissions are on a limited spotbeam which is aimed primarily towards the UK, via the Astra 2D satellite located at 28.2 degrees east. This theoreticaly limits reception to the UK, Ireland and Iceland, allowing ITV to fulfil licensing agreements with content producers. However, many people report successful reception of these signals from across Europe by using larger dishes.

Details on tuning all Free-To-Air BBC and ITV stations, including a how-to for the Sky Digibox are available here [link]

Sky and the newly-merged NTL/Telewest have both announced plans to launch HDTV services in 2006.

See also

External links

United States

Terrestrial

The United States Congress and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that TV stations convert to the digital TV standard by 2003 and that stations give up their analog TV spectrum by the end of 2006 until 2009.

While many in the industry wanted a flexible or delayed deadline, FCC attempted to force the issue (at the behest of Congress, which wants to see the money from the auction of frequencies 76-88 MHz and old analog channels 60 to 69, as well channels 52 to 59 in the near future), by mandating DTV tuners be phased in to all new TV sets, beginning with the largest. Many dates were proposed, but Congress finally fixed February 18th, 2009, in law as the maximum end date for analog television authorizations (47 USC 309(j)(14)(A) [link] as amended by section 3002 of S.1932 signed into law February 8, 2006). Because this date comes after the NCAA's Bowl Championship Series and the NFL's Super Bowl XLIII, there will be less of a chance of an acute hardware shortage from people waiting until the last minute to purchase an ATSC tuner than there would have been with a January 1 cutoff.

See also

External links

 

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