Regional Victoria digital switch date nears
Much of Regional Victoria will switch from Analogue to Digital only Television by the end of May.
- Published by David Knox
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Much of Regional Victoria will switch from Analogue to Digital only Television by the end of May.
Following the switch in the Mildura area, around three-quarters of the state will switch off Analogue television.
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, was in Ballarat yesterday to mark the countdown.
“In another fifty days, the analog signals used to inform and entertain regional Victorian households since the 1960s will be switched off for good, and all free-to-air TV will be transmitted in digital only,” he said.
“By the end of 2010, 81 per cent of households across regional Victoria had converted to digital TV. This represented a huge increase on the 45 per cent of households that were digital ready in early 2009.
“As of February 2011, the number of digital ready households across regional Victoria was closer to nine out of ten.”
“Indeed, households in places such as Bonnie Doon, Howqua, Hopetoun, Boolarra, Jeeralang and Yinnar have already switched to digital-only TV through the upgrading of their local TV transmitters in preparation for the switchover.”
After may it will be the Melbourne metropolitan area, plus an area adjoining the Victorian Alps and some smaller pockets near the South Australian border that will remain on Analogue until 2013.
You can see the rollout map here.
More information on subsidies and the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service can be found here.
“In fifty days’ time, the way television is broadcast across regional Victoria will change forever, and we want to ensure that all households are ready for this important milestone,” said Conroy.
Regional Queensland will be next, to follow later this year.
5 Responses
Craig: The problem I am finding with the STBs with PVR capabilities to USB drives is that they are very hard to follow, the menus in them are hard to understand, moving through the options are very slow, and aren’t completely reliable.
Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhamtpon, Wide Bay & Toowoomba will switch off by 31 December, my guess is once a month, I.e 31 July, 31 August….. 31 December. In local Mackay media November has been talked about as the likely switch of date there.
After 31 December that leaves Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Outback Queensland as they only remaining regions in Queensland on anagloue.
It seems strange that there is no still fixed date for regional QLD to switch over… unless they are going to implement a staggered switchoff strategy, as QLD is such a large state.
Shouldn’t the switch off dates for regional Queensland be announced already. From July 1 – December 31 over 1,000,000 Queenslanders will need to have switched to digital only. I would say the majority of people would have at least one digital tv in their households but I think having a set date would encourage those who do not have a digital tv to go digital now instead of waiting.
I know it takes time but the switch over should have been done by now IMO, I can’t remember the last time I watched analogue TV at home. Seriously $50 will get you a HD box that more than likely will also be a PVR when hooked up to a thumb drive or HDD. The government should have put in place a voucher scheme for low income house holds to buy one if needed.