Ukraine’s transition to the digital terrestrial television is again delayed. The date of cutting off television in analog format was postponed to the spring of 2019.
The announcement on the official website of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine states that the analog signal should be completely switched off in April-May 2019.
“The analog TV and radio broadcasting cut-off was scheduled for December of previous year, but as of March 2018 that plan was not approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. Therefore, the plan was changed. The analog signal cut-off will be carried out, as expected, in three stages”, as stated by Oleksandr Iliashenko, Executive Secretary of the National Broadcasting Council.
First stage: the analog cut-off in some selected regions is scheduled for August 2018.
Second stage: the analog cut-off throughout the country, except for the channel UA:PERSHYI, local broadcasters, analog channels in the ATO area and in some border territories is scheduled for January 2019.
Third stage: the full analog signal cut-off in Ukraine is scheduled for April-May 2019.
Let us recall that postponing analog broadcasting cut-off to a later date has happened repeatedly. Before, it was planned to transit from analog to digital standard in 2015, but due to various circumstances, it was decided to postpone that process to 17 June 2017. Then the deadline was extended until 30 July 2018.
