Japan gears up for analog broadcasts' demise

Next month, Japan's Association for the Promotion of Digital Broadcasting will launch their "Let's! Terrestrial Digital Winter '05" campaign. With analog broadcasts set to come to an end in 2011 in Japan, the association is wasting no time letting people across the country know. At participating stores, you'll be seeing yellow or blue stickers on all devices with terrestrial analog or terrestrial digital tuners — yellow lets you know that when 2011 rolls around, you'll either have to purchase an entirely new set or purchase an external tuner box. Blue means you're good to go when digital broadcasts finally take over. Things seem to be moving along nicely for digital broadcasts in Japan; the association plans to have 50% coverage of households across country by as early as the end of this year.