The digital changeover is the name given to the process by which
analogue television
Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, phase and frequency of an analog s ...
in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
was replaced with
digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
. It is sometimes referred to as the "analogue switch off".
In New Zealand, the switch off of
analogue signals started in September 2012, with the digital switchover being completed in
Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...
in the North island and the
West Coast region of the South Island. The country's switch to digital terrestrial reception was completed on 1 December 2013 when analogue transmissions were switched off in the upper North Island.
During 2011–12, the digital terrestrial television network was extended to cover some six-sevenths of the country's people. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage's "Going Digital" group set up an assistance scheme for the first two regions which would complete the changeover,
Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...
in the North island and the
West Coast region of the South Island. Similar schemes were run in each region as its changeover date approached.
Switchover dates
These are the dates at which switchover took place in each region of New Zealand.
Coverage areas
", goingdigital.co.nz. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
Note that area boundaries are based on transmitters - it is possible for someone on the fringe areas of a changeover region to pick up an analogue signal from another transmitter outside the region. For example. Blenheim and parts of Marlborough can pick up analogue television from Wellington's Mount Kaukau transmitter (this ability was most notably demonstrated during the 1968 Wahine disaster, where due to an extratropical cyclone cancelling flights and the then lack of an inter-island network, news footage was relayed to the South Island by filming a Blenheim television tuned to Wellington then rushing the film to Christchurch by road to be broadcast.)
See also
*Freeview (New Zealand)
Freeview is New Zealand's free-to-air television platform. It is operated by a joint venture between the country's major free-to-air broadcasters – government-owned Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand, government-subsidised Whakaat ...
* Digital television transition
*Digital switchover dates in the United Kingdom
The digital switchover is the process by which analogue terrestrial television in the United Kingdom was replaced with digital terrestrial television. It is sometimes referred to as the "analogue switch off".
In the United Kingdom, the terrest ...
References
Television in New Zealand
Digital television
2012 in New Zealand television
2013 in New Zealand television
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