Nice Change Over - Digital Television

The switch from analog broadcasting to digital has been years in the making. Changeover from analog is to digital to free-up more bands of the broadcast spectrum for public safety and emergency services, as well as for popular wireless services. Currently, most TV stations broadcast on digital and analog channels, with over 1,600 out of 1,745 full-power stations broadcasting digital programs.

For many people, these profit will come at a cost. Consumers who use an antenna on an analog set and do not pledge to cable or satellite will need to upgrade in order to continue receiving television programming.

Upgrading can be done in one of three ways:

1. purchase a digital converter box (known as a set-top box or converter box).
2. purchase a digital television.
3. subscribe to cable or satellite.

Basic Facts of Digital Television

The Government decided upon the digitalisation of the distribution of television and radio broadcasting in the mid 1990’s. The decision was generated by the need to exploit radio frequencies better. This limited natural resource is also used by other wireless communications, such as gsm telecommunication.

In addition to being cost effective, digital technology is superior to its ancestor, analogue technology. The introduction of digital technology eliminated several disturbances, for example television snow and ghost images.

Coverage:

The transmission area covers 99.9 % households.

Digital TV receiver:

The consumer can either choose a set top box that can be connected to an analogue television or a so-called integrated television receiver that incorporates the special properties of digital television.

Better image and sound:

Compared to analogue broadcasts, digital television will present better image and sound. Digital broadcasting makes better use of the radio wave frequencies and it is less susceptible to external disturbances. In addition, digital technology will also eliminate ghost images created by reflections.

Latest Media's New Status At TV Groups

"First and foremost, television is what we built this business on and we're very victorious. That's still the hub of our business and the core of our revenue." "But latest media will have a much higher growth rate, and we envision that new media will be a considerable percentage of our overall revenue."

"Digital is really now component of our DNA," said Stitt, adding up that Fox's new media audience has grown to many million users during his tenure. "It's really now integral to the broader business."Media companies have little option how to respond what audiences want. "The goal should be to enable consumers to have access to media experiences anytime, anywhere. It's all about choice."

Though the platforms that digital media executives are working with may be innovative, some of the concepts they are embracing will be new.

Digital television transition

As of late 2007, 7 countries had completed the process of turning off analog terrestrial broadcasting. Many other countries had plans to do so or were in the process of a staged conversion. The first country to make a wholesale switch to digital over-the-air (terrestrial) broadcasting was Luxembourg, in 2006. Since then, the Netherlands, Finland, Andorra, Sweden, Norway Switzerland, Belgium (Flanders), Germany, and the United States have followed suit.

In the United States, over-the-air broadcasts are solely in the ATSC digital format since June 12, 2009, the date that the FCC set for the end of all analog TV transmissions. The switchover was originally scheduled for February 17, 2009 until the US Congress passed the DTV Delay Act. By special dispensation, some analog TV signals ceased on the original date and earlier in Hawaii.

In Japan, the switch to digital is scheduled to happen July 24, 2011. In Canada, it is scheduled to happen August 31, 2011. China is scheduled to switch in 2015. In the United Kingdom, the digital switchover has different times for each part of the country; however, the whole of the UK will be digital by 2012. Brazil switched to digital on December 2, 2007 in major cities and it is estimated it will take seven years for complete signal expansion over all of the Brazilian territory.

In Malaysia, the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will call for tender bids in the third quarter of 2009 for the UHF 470–742 megahertz spectrum which will pave the way for the country to move into the digital television era. The awarding of the spectrum will see the winner having to build a single digital terrestrial transmission/TV broadcast (DTTB) infrastructure for all broadcasters to ride on to transmit their TV programs. The winner will be announced at the end of 2009 or early 2010 and has to commence digital roll-out soon after the award where the analog switch-off is planned for 2015.

While the majority of the viewers of over-the-air broadcasting in the USA watch full-power stations (which number about 1800), there are three other categories of TV stations in the USA: low-power stations, Class A stations, and TV translator stations. There is presently no deadline for these stations, about 7100 in number, to convert to digital broadcasting.