Digital Switchover in Europe

David Bradshaw |La Televisión Digital Terrestre: El futuro ya ha llegado|Santander| 23 June

Digital Switchover in Europe

• Present status• Digital penetration in Europe• Strategies and approaches to Switchover• Some examples• Market types• UK experience• The challenges

Switchover strategies: key factors• Size of the terrestrial platform

– most tv households own an average of 2.2 sets and most secondary television sets rely upon the terrestrial platform.

• Spectrum availability and international issues• DTT penetration and coverage

– As increasing numbers of terrestrially-dependent households convert to digital television services, it becomes feasible to switch off the analogue platform.

DSO status in Europe

Countries having launched DVB-TCountries completed analogue switch off (ASO)

ASO process underway

DTT penetration / coverage

Country Coverage Penetration Yrs launched

UK 80% 39% 10

Spain 92% 58% 8

Italy 85% 38% 4

Germany 90% 11% 4

France 87% 35.8% 3

DigiTAG figures end 2008

Different DSO strategies

Announced ASO dates

Mixed / Cable markets

Terrestrial markets

Country DTT Launch ASO DateNetherlands 2003 Completed

Finland 2001 Completed

Sweden 1999 Completed

Switzerland 2001 Completed

Germany 2002 Completed

Belgium, Flemish 2002 Completed

Denmark 2006 2009

Norway 2007 2009

Austria 2006 2010

Spain 2000/2005 2010

France 2005 2011

Czech Republic 2005 2011

UK 1998 2012

Italy 2003 2012

Approaches to ASONational shut-off of analogue services

Approach used in the Netherlands, Finland, Andorra, Luxembourg, United States(Adequate coverage before ASO)Phased shut-off of analogue servicesApproach used in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Spain and the United Kingdom(limited risk, increasing coverage)

Photo: DTG

Cable marketsThe Netherlands• DTT platform launched in 2003

offering limited free-to-air services from the PSB and extensive pay services from Digitenne

• ASO completed on a single day on 10 December 2006

• Since then, DTT penetration has increased from 3-5% to 11% of the population – and strong growth continuing (role of KPN)

• Mobile television services (DVB-H) also available

Mixed marketsDenmark• Launch of free-to-air DTT services

in 2006 and pre-commercial launch of pay-DTT services in 2009

• Full commercial platform to launch after ASO completed

• Free-to-air services currently use MPEG-2 while pay platform will use MPEG-4 AVC

• Analogue switch-off to be completed on a single day on 30 October

Mixed marketsSweden• Launch of DTT services in 1999

offering a largely pay DTT platform operated by Boxer

• Five phases to switch-off starting in September 2005 and completed in October 2007

• Strong emphasis on communication activities

• 40% of viewers waiting until last month to purchase DTT receivers

Terrestrial marketsFrance• Launch of DTT services in March

2005 offering viewers 18 free-to-air and 9 pay-DTT services

• Five HD/DTT services• Combination of MPEG-2 and

MPEG-4 AVC compression formats• France Télé Numérique set up to

manage analogue switch-off• Two DTT pilot projects completed

and a third underway• Analogue switch-off starting in

2010 for completion by 30 November 2011

Terrestrial marketsItaly• Launch of DTT services in

December 2004 offering viewers over 30 free-to-air services and pre-paid DTT services

• High penetration of MHP receivers• Analogue switch-off pilots

completed in Sardinia & Aoste• Partial ASO completed in Turin

and Rome• Analogue switch-off to be

completed by 2012

2009

2010

2011

2012

2008

Terrestrial market: Italy

Switch-off Date

Technical Areas Households in DSO% of comulated digital HH referred to total Italian HH

2008 Sardinia 0.66 Mn 3%

2009

Aosta Valley, western Piedmont, Trentino e Alto Adige, Lazio, Campania

6.65 Mn 30%

2010

Eastern Piedmont, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria

9.98 Mn 68%

2011 Marche, Abruzzo,

Molise, Basilicata, Puglia

3.61 Mn 81%

2012 Tuscany, Umbria,

Sicily, Calabria 4.94 Mn 100%

Technical Areas and Households Involved

Factors for success Confirmed ASO date and roadmap Setting up an organisation to lead DSO and

with cooperation of full broadcast chain

Sufficient financial resources Communications campaign to inform viewers

Digital Switchover in the UK

Policy and Regulation

Advisory GroupsImplementation

The Consumer Expert Group

The Platform Advisory Group

Digital Switchover in the UK

• Digital UK launched April 2005

• Switchover started in Copeland on 17 October 2007

• Next major switchover at Manchester this autumn

• 50% of the UK switches by end 2010

• Completed in 2012

UK Switchover Timetable• 15 TV Regions

• 60+ main transmitters (each switches on a different date)

• 1,100+ relay transmitters• 88.8% of UK households own

a digital TV (Ofcom's Digital Progress Report Q4 2008)

• Switchover will increase coverage to 98.5% (equivalent to analogue today)

May 2006 - Border region launched July - Whitehaven pilot agreed by Digital UKAugust - Whitehaven residents informed by postApril 2007 - On-screen captions startJuly - Booklet to all homesAugust - Help Scheme launched17 Oct - BBC 2 analogue switched off 14 Nov - BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 analogue switched off

Whitehaven Switchover

Switchover Products

A product or service that is designed to work before, during and after switchover

A product that can receive digital services from the Freeview UK platform.

A digital TV recorder that can receive and record Freeview content accurately.

Digital TV Group (DTG)

• Industry association for digital television in the UK• Not-for-profit organization, funded by its

membership• Platform neutral • Technology agnostic• Based in London, UK• Representing a worldwide membership• Publishes and maintains the D-Book: the technical

requirements for interoperability for the UK digital terrestrial TV market

• Manages the industry’s test centre: DTG Testing

DTG Testing • Comprehensive Test and Conformance Regime

• Development of test materials• Management of engineering channel for over air downloads• Interactive application testing• Receiver ‘Zoo’

www.dtg.org.uk

Key challenges of digital switchover Technical issues – size of the conversion task

Analogue transmitters to be replaced with digital equipment New frequency planning, new frequencies for many transmitters,

coverage issues Protecting analogue services during transition

Consumer issues – information & acceptance COST (new receivers, receiving antennas, etc) Technical information must be available (i.e. DTT coverage areas) Receiver issues – consumer confidence Difficulties for certain population groups to adopt new technology Digital refusniks – do not want a government imposition

And in the future...

ASO Launch of HD/DTT

services? Conversion to MPEG-4

AVC? Conversion to DVB-T2? Will there be further

switchovers?

DigiTAG ASO Handbook

For more information download the DigiTAG 2008 handbook on analogue switch-off

at www.digitag.org