[opendtv] Netherlands switches off analogue TV

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:17:19 -0500

This was reported by Jeroen Stessen already.

It says here that over the freed-up spectrum previously used by PAL TV,
only some public service broadcasts are carried free, and that the rest
is pay TV that competes with cable.

I suppose that does not imply that the DTT previously on the air had to
be all pay-TV, but from what Jeroen said before, that's mostly the case.
Under these circumstances, it seems easy to understand why 95 percent of
viewers subscribe to cable. Even more than in Germany before analog
shutoff.

Maybe KPN should try to offer FOTA TV in its terrestrial system. That
might be successful enough to retain use of that spectrum beyond 2017.
Seemed to work in the UK, and it also seems to have boosted OTA
viewership in Germany. (And maybe here too, as we discussed last week.)

Bert

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http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2120

Netherlands switches off analogue TV

Champagne corks were popping in Amsterdam last night as Dutch telco KPN
switched off analogue television transmitters in the Netherlands, making
it the first country to fully liberate the analogue TV spectrum for new
digital services. Though the switch is a landmark in the global
transition to digital-only broadcasting, few households in the country
will have noticed: only 74,000 homes relied exclusively on analogue TV
in a nation in which cable serves TV to 95% of the population.

KPN has a licence to use the liberated spectrum for digital TV
broadcasts until 2017. Under its licence it has had to invest in a new
digital terrestrial broadcasting infrastructure, and must carry public
service broadcast channels free of charge in return for access to the
rest of the spectrum, which is being used to offer pay-TV channels that
compete with cable.

KPN switched off analogue transmitters shortly after midnight. "Then we
broke out the champagne," said a KPN spokesman.

Though analogue TV signals are being switched off, the move does not
mean the Netherlands is fully digital: much of the country's cable TV is
still delivered via analogue cable networks.

Lovelace Consulting 12.12.2006
 
 
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