As from June 17, Ukraine will start transiting to the digital television. At that, according to the original plan, there should be no analog television at all in the country by the end of 2016. However, for the time being, either population, or infrastructure, or the state itself is not yet prepared for such a curt refusal of the usual broadcasting system.
On June, 11, Thursday, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council plans to make an official statement that the transition to the digital broadcasting will be postponed.
Oleg Chernych, the National Council’s Member, told LigaBusinessInform about possible reasons for the lack of progress in this matter, as well as about issues to be addressed primarily for appearance of the modern digital TV in Ukraine, even later than planned.
According to Chernysh, as from June, 17 there should be turned off 57 analog TV stations. These stations, according to the Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies, may represent a hindrance for the digital stations of neighboring states, where the modern broadcasting system became usual long ago.
The same transition to the digital broadcasting will be carried out in four stages, and each of them provides for switching off analogue TV in certain Ukrainian regions.
The transition can be expected only from March 2016, despite the fact that the Geneva Agreements specified other possible deadlines. The date of the final transition still remains unknown, but, according to Chernysh, it can be expected not earlier than on December, 31 in 2018.
The sociological studies showed that 5.7 million Ukrainian families opted for the cable TV, 4.5 million for the satellite one, and another 6.2 million preferred terrestrial broadcasting. Just only near 1.6 million families of them watched the digital TV. Thus, in order to ensure a full-scale transition to the digital it is required to provide more tuners for 4.6 million households.
According to Chernysh, to buy a set-top-box is not so easy today. Ukraine requires a new full-valued state program, supporting privileged categories of the Ukrainians, as well as abolishing the import duty for these devices. In addition, it is required to encourage domestic manufacturers to produce tuners. It is the pace of acquiring set-top-boxes by Ukrainian households that the final terms of transiting to the digital depend on.
The relevant suggestions of the National Council should be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers before this month is out.
