Netherlands officially pulls the plug on analog OTA transmissions, goes all digital
by Darren Murph 
posted Dec 12th 2006 at 5:24PM
Aw yeah, we knew this day was coming (or at least we thought), but it's thrilling to see the big shots keeping their word and actually going through with something in a timely manner. In a move sure to cause backlash and rejoicing alike, the Dutch have officially yanked the plug on OTA analog broadcasts, leaving a host of open frequencies that we're sure will be put to good use. Although just a small percentage of customers actually rely solely on those (now) antiquated signals, those folks who are now forced to search for alternate forms of fetching television can purchase a digital terrestrial tuner for around $66.50. The bandwidth formerly used by analog has been "licensed through 2017 by Royal KPN NV, which will use it to broadcast digital television." The government is suggesting that killing the old broadcasts will "save them around $14 million annually," not to mention the segment of new customers looking for service will hopefully drive competition within the cable / IPTV market there. So for those holding it down in the Netherlands, be sure to pop the champagne while everybody else sits around and waits it out.
Filed under: Industry, Regulatory, OTA
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
biker020 @ Dec 13th 2006 10:17AM
just too bad the digital terrestrial signal provided by Royal KPN only broadcasts sub-standard, highly compressed signals... resolution is below SD television and any fast movement results in major macro blocking :-(