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Monday, June 25, 2007

Switzerland: Analogue television broadcasting ends

At high noon Universal Time today, all analogue television broadcasts in the French-speaking region of Switzerland went permanently dark. From now on, homes without cable or satellite service (which amount to only about 8% of households in this highly wired market) will have to attach an external DVB-T receiver box to each existing analogue television receiver. In French, the new digital broadcast service is called “TNT”, for “Télévision Numérique Terrestre”.

I installed this receiver, which cost CHF 79.95 including VAT, on the Fourmilab illuminatus. With the little 13 cm metal antenna included stuck to the top with a magnet, reception is absolutely perfect. Since the digital broadcasting is in the regular UHF television band (specifically 754 MHz/channel 56), a regular rooftop antenna can be used, but in this case with line of sight to the transmitting tower on the Chasseral, there's no need for an external antenna.

Posted at June 25, 2007 20:11