Thursday, October 13, 2011

End date for analogue TV is set

The UK's analogue TV signals will be officially turned off on 24 October 2012.

The last region to enjoy the old style TV broadcasting system will be Northern Ireland and its analogue transmitters will be shut down on that date.

The switch-off brings the curtain down on a transmission technology that lasted for 80 years.

Once free of TV signals, the spectrum currently used for them will be used to support high speed mobile networks.

TV broadcasting began in August 1932 with a series of experimental analogue transmissions to test out the novel technology. The BBC began broadcasting TV to a schedule in 1936.

Freed spectrum

The UK's conversion from analogue to digital TV began in 2008, and early tests of the impact of the switch-off were held in the Cumbrian town of Whitehaven, which was also the first to receive digital-only signals.

Since the official conversion programme began most UK regions have had their analogue signals swapped for digital.

People, who do not subscribe to satellite or cable services have had to buy new televisions or set-top boxes to continue watching programmes.

About five regions, including London and Tyne Tees, remain to switch. Northern Ireland will be the last to swap to digital technology.

Digital is taking the place of analogue so viewers can be offered more channels and higher quality pictures.

The spectrum freed by the turn off of analogue signals will be re-used for a future mobile technology called Long Term Evolution. Ofcom is due to run an auction in late 2012 that will see the radio spectrum sold to operators to use for the service.

Switch-over fund

Ofcom is currently carrying out a consultation exercise to see how many people will suffer interference when LTE is turned on. It estimated that about 3% of UK viewers, about 760,000 people, will see poorer quality TV pictures when LTE is in wide use.

Filters that strip out the interfering signals are expected to solve the problem for most people but others may have to find other ways to watch digital TV.

The government set aside millions of pounds to help vulnerable people make the changes needed for the switchover. Much of that has now been subsumed into the fund to bring next-generation broadband to rural areas.



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