ARTICLE

Singapore's Free-To-Air TV Channels to go fully digital by 2013!

By InCinemas / 19 Jun 2012 (Tuesday)

Expect Channel 5, 8, Suria and Vasantham in High Definition (HD) by December 2013! Consumers will get to enjoy a wider variety of new content and services as well as richer audio-visual experiences.

In the meantime, consumers can enjoy the digital experience through the digital TV services offered by pay TV broadcasters.

Source: MDA Press Release
Singapore, 19 June 2012 – The Media Development Authority (MDA) today announced that Singapore’s free-to-air (FTA) TV channels will go fully digital by the end of 2013 using the DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial) broadcasting standard.

(Find out more on the benefits the Consumers and the Industry can expect)

With Singapore’s migration to digital TV, free-to-air broadcaster MediaCorp will transmit all its seven free-to-air channels digitally by end 2013. Channels 5, 8, Suria and Vasantham will be available in High Definition by end 2013. The remaining three channels - okto, Channel U and Channel NewsAsia will first be broadcast in Standard Definition from end 2013, before being broadcast in High Definition in 2016.

The adoption of DVB-T2 standard comes after a successful trial conducted last year with MediaCorp and pay-TV operator StarHub. The trial, which involved some 500 households in Ang Mo Kio and Bedok housing estates, showed that DVB-T2 was suitable for deployment in Singapore’s urbanised environment.

To ensure a smooth switchover, there will be a simulcast period, where both digital and analogue free-to-air television signals will be broadcast to ensure all households have time to get accustomed to receiving their free-to-air TV signals digitally. Singapore will complete the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting by 2020, in line with ASEAN’s agreed timeframe for making the switch¹.

¹ In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and South Korea are planning to go digital between 2012 and 2015, while Japan has already gone fully digital since June 2011.

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Singapore's Free-To-Air TV Channels to go fully digital by 2013!