The digital TV switchover begins... in Britain

We're still quite a few days months away from our official analog-to-digital cutover, but the lads (and dames) in Britain aren't wasting any time. Reportedly, the nation is already preparing to begin the switchover, starting in the northwest English resort of Whitehaven with BBC2. This initial move will affect around 25,000 households, and it was noted that the "other analog channels" would be switched off on November 14th. 'Course, Britain as a whole isn't scheduled to go 100-percent digital until 2012, but that didn't stop kiddos at a local primary school from "burying an analog time capsule to recall how television was before the change." Kids these days... they've got it good.

[Image courtesy of BBC]

[JDizzle @ Oct 17th 2007 6:17PM]

Why not just say years...

[insertAlias @ Oct 17th 2007 6:28PM]

because 2009 is less than 2 years away maybe...

[Reader @ Oct 17th 2007 6:40PM]

Why not just say 2012...

[Bloobie @ Oct 17th 2007 6:47PM]

Because February 17, 2009 is only 16 months away.

[azayzel @ Oct 17th 2007 7:35PM]

It's much easier to switch over a country that is the size of a small state, than a country several times larger than the whole of Europe. Several channels in the U.S. have been transmitting clear QAM for almost 3 years already, it will be good to finally see all the analog channels finally switch over (or die like a dinosaur!).

[Robert Johnston @ Oct 17th 2007 8:09PM]

Re: azayzel @ Oct 17th 2007 7:35PM
---
It's much easier to switch over a country that is the size of a small state, than a country several times larger than the whole of Europe. Several channels in the U.S. have been transmitting clear QAM for almost 3 years already, it will be good to finally see all the analog channels finally switch over (or die like a dinosaur!).
---
Considering that the UK transmits stations at a much lower power than the US, and covers smaller areas with it's transmission cells (A US state would have one transmitter covering the whole area, the UK has hundreds, if not thousands, covering towns and cities and providing fill-in coverage for mountains and valleys), and considering they have different "providers" for stations in close proximity (Carlton/Anglia/Tyne Tees/Granada etc), there's more problem with signal clash and interference in the UK than a US state would have.

As it is, the UK has had free Digital Terrestrial TV (DVB-T) running side-by-side with Analog Terrestrial for the past 9 years (Since OnDigital in 1998) without issue. It was always stated that Analog transmissions would be stopped in 2012, but due to faster consumer takeup, this date can be brought forward.

[Gerard Boyers @ Oct 17th 2007 8:51PM]

"It's much easier to switch over a country that is the size of a small state, than a country several times larger than the whole of Europe."

If you're referring to the US, how is that several times larger than Europe? The EU and the USA are roughly the same size - Europe is 10.2 million km² and the US is 9.83 million km².

The UK is 244,820 km², just smaller than the state of Michigan, and there are only 10 states bigger than that.

I wouldn't go round making unfounded statements like that - http://www.shockgadgets.com

[Jens @ Oct 17th 2007 6:20PM]

Well in Sweden all tv-broadcasts are already digital. So we are way ahead of Britain :)

[Chrisphillers @ Oct 17th 2007 6:32PM]

We are so behind in the UK - such a shoddy and slow paced government. The severe lack of fibre optics is another area the Uk is well behind. grr.

[shaun @ Oct 17th 2007 6:45PM]

Maybe no fibre-optics, but we have 3G!

[Chrisphillers @ Oct 17th 2007 7:14PM]

And 3.5G;) But thats nothing special in Europe really!

[Carbonize @ Oct 17th 2007 7:58PM]

That and 3G was developed by a British company owned by Sir Bob Geldof ;)

[Borje @ Oct 18th 2007 4:08PM]

Finland was well ahead Sweden. Switch to fully digital was done 1st of September.

[PeterF @ Oct 17th 2007 9:49PM]

@shau
I hate you!

[Joost @ Oct 18th 2007 5:59AM]

Haha, that's nothing. Here in the Netherlands we buried the analog signal already in december 2006 ;)

[Andreas @ Oct 17th 2007 6:26PM]

well thank you Jens for stealing my comment, yes Sweden finished its transition about a week ago.

[mattyuk @ Oct 17th 2007 6:39PM]

Indeed Sweden has beaten the UK. The fact that currently Sweden has a population of nearly 10 million, compared to the UK's 60 million, may have been a factor.

[Argot @ Oct 17th 2007 8:04PM]

Well, look at the size of GB compared to Sweden.

[Ondra Soukup @ Oct 17th 2007 6:40PM]

The smaller the country is, the faster things happen. Or something like that, right ? My country began shutting down analog in some regions in July and August '08.

[paul34 @ Oct 17th 2007 6:41PM]

sweet. Maybe I can use the switchover to convince my dad to get a new TV for themselves... my mom has wanted one for quite a while.

If I conveniently fail to mention the converter boxes... it just might work...

[Ondra Soukup @ Oct 17th 2007 6:42PM]

The smaller the country is, the faster things happen. Or something
like that, right ? My country began shutting down analog in some
regions in July and August '07.

[Ondra Soukup @ Oct 17th 2007 6:43PM]

and yes, all broadcasting is already running in digital for over year and half.

[Avent @ Oct 17th 2007 7:33PM]

Brazil is also preparing to its first digital broadcasting. It will go official in December and will span the biggest city around, Sao Paulo... something like 19mi people live there.

[Mikey @ Oct 17th 2007 7:50PM]

The majority of the UK has been able to receive all the terrestrial programming it currently can receive as analogue for several years now, with digital terrestrial broadcasting starting in 1998 almost 10 years ago.

However the complete switch-over will be complete by 2012.

We have had sky digital since 1998, and freeview for about 5 years.

[hn333 @ Oct 17th 2007 7:57PM]

The world ends at 2012

[MatthewJ @ Oct 17th 2007 7:59PM]

Hey, at least you don't live in Ireland, we don't even have a digital terrestrial/broadcast service available in any form yet!

[Carl M @ Oct 17th 2007 8:03PM]

Kids these days...

Why, I remember when we had just 4 channels (ABC/NBC/CBS/PBS), and you had to get up and flip a dial on the set to change the channels or the volume. Some of the channels were fuzzy, depending upon how the rabbit ears were adjusted; if someone ran the vacuum cleaner in the next room, the picture would go to hell.

Somehow, we still both watched lots of TV and were able to deal with times when there was nothing on (and no, you couldn't surf the net either).

[Mikey @ Oct 17th 2007 8:13PM]

sounds like heaven or hell...I can't decide which

[shaun @ Oct 17th 2007 8:07PM]

...and there was no Heroes!

[monkeee @ Oct 17th 2007 8:07PM]

lasses

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 17th 2007 8:13PM]

"Kids these days... they've got it good."

What? Did my Grandfather write this? I've been hearing about old-time radio from him and how I got it better for far to long...

[Alexander @ Oct 17th 2007 10:59PM]

I totally forgot about that 4 months till HD broadcast FTW!!!

[Arvid @ Oct 18th 2007 12:58AM]

yea, the size of sweden: 449 964 km²
the size of Great Britain: 244 820 km²

[Brian @ Oct 18th 2007 8:10AM]

What's with these pointless stats? It's the amount of people affected and the amount of equipment to deal with that causes it to take time - not the size of the country. It'd be like saying it'll take longer to flick off analogue tv in the sahara because it's so big.

Britain is behind in mass conversion to many technologies / areas because it was one of the first to get them in the first place, whilst other countries followed behind.

That and there's a lot of people who don't like things to change.

[eddie_nutritious @ Oct 18th 2007 2:58AM]

Has anyone else observed that a lot of people have assumed that the switch to digital broadcasts means that they'll need an HDTV to view anything, when, in reality, only folks who get their programming via OTA rabbit-ears are affected, and it has really nothing to do with HD?

I don't know how many of my relatives and uninformed friends I've had to correct on this widely misunderstood topic.

[Rknall @ Oct 18th 2007 4:23AM]

In Austria, the switch already has taken place. Same in parts of Germany.

[Al @ Oct 18th 2007 6:52AM]

Wikipedia has a nice summary of this process and does not limit itself to the UK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television#Switch-off_completed

[moondy @ Oct 18th 2007 8:55AM]

Right on Brittian. I can imagine Australia getting digital TV when we get unlimited bandwidth broadband at a reasonable price (eg: Expect to pay $105 a month for a 30GB a month on a 8192/384 connection speed)....in other words never.

[Daniel Matthews @ Oct 18th 2007 9:33AM]

I am from whitehaven, where the digital switchover is being 'pioneered' - i have to say, i never thought we'd ever EVER be mentioned on engadget.

I think switchover is a pain no matter where it takes place, because it's not just about the transmission of the signal, it's about getting people ready to receive it.

[Ricco @ Oct 18th 2007 11:59AM]

Norway and Denmark close down the analog signal in 2009 in favor of digital broadcasting.

[Glazun @ Oct 18th 2007 12:50PM]

Hmm.. I cant even get decent analogue reception in parts of ireland.. wonder how we'll manage with digital.