Digital uptake at 61%
Digital uptake had increased from 56% of households to 61% by December.
- Published by David Knox
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Digital uptake had increased from 56% of households to 61% by December.
“The number of Australian households to convert to digital TV increased by 14 percentage points during 2009, and by five percentage points during the last quarter of 2009,” Communications Minister Senator Conroy said.
“It’s great to see so many Australian households taking advantage of digital TV and enjoying new channels and additional content, along with better picture and sound quality.
“Digital switchover is important as it will also free-up spectrum which can be used for the delivery of new and improved broadcasting and communications services, such as high speed broadband.”
A further 78% of households have indicated they know how to convert to digital.
The results follow a call this week to extend the date of the switchover, as analogue will be given the flick in the Mildura region soon.
But Executive Director of the Digital Switchover Taskforce, Andy Townend said, “In Mildura Sunraysia, which will be the first region in Australia to go digital-only on 30 June, 79 per cent of households had converted to digital TV by the end of 2009, which was an increase of nine percentage points over the year.
“The Digital Switchover Taskforce is working closely with communities across Australia to ensure they are prepared for the digital switchover when it occurs in their area.
“Regional South Australia and Broken Hill will follow Mildura Sunraysia in the second half of 2010 in switching over to digital TV.
“Awareness of switchover was very high in the Spencer Gulf, Riverland and Mt Gambier and the southeast of South Australia, and Broken Hill regions with 64 per cent of households already converted by the end of 2009.”
More info on switching to digital can be found here.
10 Responses
Bring back analogue! I agree with many comments about the reception, if you’ve got an indoor antenna (in your bedroom for example where it’s difficult to install an outdoor antenna) forget about watching digital as it will just keep cutting in and out. At least with analogue it always worked. Until they can guarantee good digital reception they should keep analogue.
Digital TV reception is still problematic for a lot of people in areas with spotty coverage. On top of that we have the netrworks playing silly buggers with the picture quality on various channels by lowering the bitrates. At various times the picture quality looks worse than YouTube – especially SBS and ABC. The cramming of more channels into a limited 7MHz, 23Mbps bandwidth is really causing problems. Hopefully the shift to dynamic bitrates will improve things.
We brought mum a HD set-top box for Christmas and took advantage of the cheaper prices and more choice, Sydney metro . Mum has not looked back she has a standard TV about 5 years old and the picture etc is great . Mum loves the extra channels and is looking forward to when some new ones come on the scene. She has been enjoying the extra Big Bang eps, Frasier,ER, Heartbeat and 24 to name a few.
If you’ve already gone digital, how the heck does “another delay” cause a problem for you? It doesn’t, so let those whom it does affect have their say. Enjoy your new channels of repeats and stop telling the rest of Australia that it’s all good, as your own experience is in no way guaranteed to be a universal one. Try thinking about those who aren’t quite as well off as you, or who may not have a painless and seamless transition available.
If they want us to all get digital, make it worth getting. I have digital but if I could go back to analogue I would. Digital tends to cut in and out, I can barely get channel 10 and don’t ask about ABC. Analogue might have been a bit fuzzy, but at least it was consistent.
And I live in quite a large town.
@vinny: Market research, they survey households across the country, accounting for every city and regional market, to gather the information. If you follow the link in the original article and read the full report it tells you how they gather the data
How do they work out these stats ? eg
“Digital uptake had increased from 56% of households to 61% by December ”
?
Cough cough…just because you have “taken it up” does not mean you actually get reception Mr Conroy. In the Port Stephens area many households have purchased a setup box but we still watch the analogue signal because it actually works, unlike the digital. D******D! 🙁
Exactly Andrew, my 80 year old Grandma knew about digital and went a bought little LCD TV so she could watch the new channels. She then decided she liked it so much that she went and bought a STB so she wouldn’t miss her shows if she was watching TV in the bedroom on her little old telly. Fair enough she asked me to come and set them up for her but she went got all the gear and everything. It is not hard to do and she now loves it because she has more choice about what she can watch in the middle of the day.
A call to extend the digital takeover,it was originally supposed to be 2008,not another delay,i don’t know why as set top boxes are quite cheap now and the additional channels on offer are reasonable better than the old three commercial TV station only policy