New stories about analogue switch-off have been numerous recently following the recent decision in the United States to delay its Analogue Switch-Off (ASO) date from 17 February to 12 June. The fear that over five million homes were not prepared contributed to the decision to delay switch-off.
Situation in Europe
| In Europe seven countries have completed digital switchover. While the majority of these countries has a low penetration of households relying on the terrestrial platform for their primary television reception (Andorra, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), this has not been the case for two markets (Finland, Sweden). A further eight countries have begun the analogue switch-off process (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the UK).
There have not been any examples of last-minute delays to analogue switch-off in Europe. Although several countries have delayed their switch-off date by a few years (Finland, Italy) or brought forward their analogue switch-off date (Spain), such date changes have taken place well before any extensive switch-off planning had begun. |  Purple: ASO completed |
Taking the time to prepare viewers
The time between the launch of the DTT platform and the completion of analogue switch-off has varied between countries. In the case of the United Kingdom, the process will have effectively taken a total of 14 years. Other countries, such as Norway and the Netherlands, have been able to complete digital switchover within 2 years. The speed of the process will depend on such factors as the number of viewers that depend upon the terrestrial television platform, DTT coverage, and, in the case of Norway, the simultaneous planning of the DTT service launch with the switch-off of analogue terrestrial services.
But how much advance-notice is it necessary to provide viewers about the actual analogue switch-off date? In the Netherlands, the public service broadcaster has recommended that the communications campaign informing viewers about analogue switch-off should not begin too early for fear that the message could become forgotten if there was no sense of immediate urgency. In France, the law requires that viewers be given at least 9 months advance-notice.
Regardless of the amount of advance-notice given to viewers, most will choose to delay their purchase of the necessary DTT equipment. In Sweden, for example, 40% of viewers purchased DTT receivers in the month prior to switch-off, of which 16% waited until the week before. It is unlikely that a delay in the analogue switch-off date will alter these habits!