Communications Regulatory Authority

Figure 1.16. Western Europe: breakdown of households with DDT devices (%)
Source: Italmedia Consulting
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
Spain
Holland
Sweden
Finland
Belgium
France
The European Commission has indicated 2012 as the date by which the switchoff
of analogue terrestrial broadcasts (and the transition to digital ones) should be
completed.
Germany should be the first European country to complete the transition: seven
regions out of the 8 “landers” already broadcast digital terrestrial programmes regularly.
The completion of the switch-off in the country (planned for 2006-2007) is also aided
by the poor penetration of the terrestrial platform (around 9%, compared to 50% for
cable and 41% for satellite).
As for the other European countries, most of them have indicated the 2010-2012
period as the switch-off date. In Italy the date is set by regulations to be the end of 2008
(cf. paragraph 1.2.6.).
With reference to the current diffusion of DTT in the single European countries
(Figure 1.16.), growth has been particularly accentuated in Italy where, at the end of
2005, the service’s users had passed the 4 million mark, a figure that puts Italy in
second place, in absolute terms, after the United Kingdom, and in third place as far as
the penetration into households is concerned. Aiding the development of the DDT
diffusion have been the availability of government grants for the purchase of MHP settop
boxes and the launching of pay-per-view services (in particular, the possibility to
purchase single matches of the Italian “A Series” football championship) by national
broadcasters Mediaset and La7 (cf. paragraph 1.2.2.).
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