Finland will switch over to all-digital television

Finland will switch over to digital television in the beginning of September.

Five analogue transmission networks will be switched off early on Saturday morning, 1 September. Households that receive television broadcasts through an antenna will need a digital receiver, a set-top box, or an integrated digital television to view the broadcasts.

Information about the digital switch-over will be broadcast on one public service TV channel for the first week.

Right after the spectrum from analogue channels was released, seven new digital television channels started operations.

Less than half of Finnish households are covered by terrestrial TV reception.

Cable television service providers may convert digital signal to analogue until the end of February 2008. After that cable households will also need a digital receiver to watch TV broadcasts.

At the end of July and beginning of August, 85 per cent of households with antenna reception and 61 per cent of cable households had a digital receiver. Brisk sales of digital television equipment in August will show in the next statistics that will be available on 20 September.

Finland was among the first to digitalise its television broadcast network. In contrast to, for example, Sweden and Germany, the whole of Finland will switch over to digital television at the same time and not according to regions.

The first digital TV broadcasts began in Finland in 2001.

The few shadow areas that still exist in Finland will be provided with filler transmitters in the next few months. By then the digital transmission network will cover 99.999 per cent of Finland's population.

Major information campaigns have been organised to inform, advise and instruct people about the digital switch-over.


Further information:
Mr Tauno Äijälä, Project Manager, tel +358 400 210 251
Ms Katariina Kivistö, Director of Press and Information, tel +358 400 502 128