Alert over Spain switch-off problems
Written by Iñaki Ferreras
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 20:12
Three months before Spain's national analogue switch-over, set for April 3, Impulsa TDT, the association for the promotion and implementation of the new television has warned over the problems ahead if buildings do not adapt their antennas as soon as possible.
These problems are being exacerbated by a lack of telecommunication installers due to the amount of work they are having to undertake. There were still 22.6% of buildings to be digitally adapted as of Q3 last year, according to the National Federation of Telecommunication Installers (FENITEL).
Impulsa TDT is encouraging collective houses to "initiate as soon as possible the works for the collective antennas adaptation to digital". This is compulsory provided the neighbours want to watch DTT and there is coverage in their area. A total of 96.3% of the population can now get the national digital channels, with 64.95% of homes already connected to DTT according to the association AIMC's latest data. TNSofres estimates are higher: 74.7% are already connected according to TNSofres, the association for measuring analogue and digital TV penetration, with 76.3% of individuals now watching DTT.
As for the number of people watching digital TV before analogue TV, DTT viewing share was 49.1% in November. And the daily consumption of DTT was 161 minutes in the same month.
All in all from March 2003 to October 2009 a total of 23.4 million DTT boxes were sold.
Finally the figures coming from the Ministry of Industry show better DTT coverage, at 98.6% of the country's homes.