18. 01. 2012

1.5 MILLION TV SETS NOT MEETING THE STANDARDS

Belgrade, January 18, 2012 (Tanjug, B92) - In a matter of one year, around 1.5 million households would need to buy either new TV sets that would meet the standards, or set-top boxes that would enable the reception of TV digital signal.

The State Secretary for Digital Agenda Jasna Matic said at the meeting with suppliers and vendors of TV sets that this was related only to terrestrial broadcasting in particular, namely the citizens who had individual or communal antennae in their buildings, not the ones having cable or satellite TV program.

Set-top boxes, or so-called receivers of digital signal, designed to convert it to analogue for it could be broadcast on older TV sets, will cost only a few tens of Euros, but it is not yet known whether certain categories of citizens will have incentives in their purchase.

All sets that meet the specific technical requirements (MPEG-4 standard for compression of video and DVB-T2 for transmitting of digital signal) will have a distinctive sticker that would make it easy for the citizens to recognize the appropriate model of TV set with enabled receiving of digital signal, said Matic.

Other technical specifications, that are very precise, will not mean much to the common citizen, but will determine the right TV sets for suppliers and distributors.

Technical specifications will be detailed on Digital Agenda website, available as of today, said Matic, and reminded that the website http://www.digitalizacija.info/ would soon be availabe also to the citizens, where they could get informed on the process of transition from analogue to digital broadcasting of TV programs.

According to Matic, the experimental broadcasting of digital signal will start in a month, while the switch-off of analogue signal will be carried out in phases. The entire process is planned to last for a year, while the deadline set in line with the Geneva Agreement is June 17, 2015. The Pilot network will be broadcast from 15 locations and approximately one half of population in Serbia will be able to receive such signal. The text period will serve to identify problems and find appropriate solutions in order for the digital signal to be aired efficiently.