Minister Pat Rabbitte has announced that Wednesday 24th October, 2012, is the official date when the Irish analogue TV network will be switched off. Just over one year from now, on October 24th 2012, the analogue TV network will be switched off and the full switchover to the digital TV network will be complete.
Currently, there are approximately 250,000 households across Ireland who still rely on an aerial to watch TV, and latest research shows that 23% of Irish people, most of whom are over 55, are still not aware that the analogue TV network will be switched off in late 2012.
Those relying on an aerial to watch TV will need to take action before October of next year. Options for those relying on analogue include a once-off fee to purchase a set top box to connect to SAORVIEW or to move to a pay-TV service, such as Sky, UPC or a cable or broadband provider.
The Republic of Ireland Switchover date is the same as the Northern Ireland date, which is hoped to make the transition as straightforward as possible for viewers and broadcasters.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, was joined at the launch with broadcaster Gay Byrne, who will front the advertising campaign for the Digital Switchover, which will debut on Irish TV screens this evening. The Minister commented on the digital switchover, saying ”The availability of digital television and the switching off of the analogue TV network in a year’s time is a very positive thing for Ireland and will offer TV viewers a number of additional benefits, such as clearer picture and sound quality, more TV channels, radio channels, information services and high definition TV. Importantly, digital TV also uses less space in the broadcast spectrum band which means that Ireland will join many other countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world in freeing up space for other purposes, such as the provision of mobile or broadband services.“
For more information on the Digital Switchover go to www.goingdigital.ie.
*Research figures provided by Millward Brown Lansdowne, September 2011.
