Analogue terrestrial TV ends in most of Hungary

Analog terrestrial television broadacsting ends this Wednesday, July 31st in most parts of Hungary, including Budapest and its vicinity, with the northeast and small areas in the south following suit at the end of October this year, completing the digital switchover in this country.

Regular analogue television broadcasting began in Hungary on May 1, 1957 after experiments in 1953 and 1955 (this latter was seen by 15 viewers).

In line with technical developments, the transmission of digital television signals began in this country at the end of 2008. Digital broadcasting not only carries much lower costs than those of analogue, its technology also allows more programs to be broadcast on the same channel (bandwidth) as well as additional services such as several audio channels and program guide.

The end of analogue terrestrial broadcasting only concerns those receiving television signals via an aerial from a terrestrial transmitter. Those who have not prepared for the digital switchover will either need a seperate digital receiver box to be connected to their analogue TV set or buy a new TV that has the proper (MPEG-4) receiver unit.

Those receiving digital television (DVB-T) signals with their own antenna from terrestrial source are able to watch seven channels M1, M2, Duna TV, Duna World, TV2 and RTL Klub in Hungarian and euronews in English, German, French or Hungarian as well as a few ino and radio channels provided by the transmission company Antenna Hungária under the name 'Mindig TV'.

Switchover to digital terrestrial broadcasting this year is to be completed in 13 more countries globally, including five in Europe: Bulgaria, Iceland, Macedonia, Moldova and Poland.