New digital TV at first: when channels will no longer be seen and who has to change TV

The shutdown of the television as we know it today will be gradual and will begin on September 1. The timing of closure and the transition to the new standard

The transition to the new digital terrestrial standard, which will allow Italians to be able to enjoy a much higher image quality than the current one, is very close and receive even more channels. The pros are important, but the cons are no less; it will be necessary, for many Italians:

• change your tv
• buy a decoder

But why a new digital terrestrial? The process, according to Ansa, is determined by the need to release the 700 Mhz band, widely used in Italy, especially by local televisions, to accommodate the 5G network for telephone operators. The works will begin already at the beginning of this year, with changes that for the moment will only mean the need to retune some channels (depending on the area of ​​Italy where you live).

When the Rai and Mediaset channels will stop being seen: the calendar

The shutdown of the signal, just over ten years after the transition to Dvb-T1, which radically changed the display modes on the small screen, will begin at the end of the summer of 2021. The calendar was drawn up by the Ministry of Economy. Development, with the division of Italy into four areas:

• begins on September 1 with areas 1 and 3, which include: Emilia
  Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont, the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, Valle d’Aosta and Veneto. For these territories there will be time until December 31 of the year to complete the transition.
• from January 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022 it will be the turn of area 2 which includes: Campania, Lazio Liguria, Sardinia, Tuscany and Umbria
• From then on, from April 1, 2022 to June 20, 2022, the date of the last national shutdown, it will be the turn of the inhabitants of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Marche, Molise, Puglia, Sicily.

The standard will go from MPEG2 toMPEG4, which already allows you to watch the channels in high definition. All those who have a television that already allows the reception of the high definition signal from the number 500 on the remote control will have no problem receiving the channels.

Then there will be phase two, with the final transition to the new DVB-T2 Hevc in July 2022. To check if your display is compatible with this standard, you must tune in to the two test channels 100 and 200: if the message “HEVC test Main10 ”, the model is enabled for reception. It should not be necessary to change the televisions sold as of 2017, but many of the equipment purchased previously will need a new decoder.