THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is finalizing the rules on the analog television shutoff which will initially be implemented in Mega Manila as part of the country’s migration to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).
The NTC will release in January the draft memorandum circular (MC) for public hearing.
“We are now finalizing the draft memorandum circular for the DTT ASO (analog shutoff) for Mega Manila, and then we will schedule a public hearing for the said MC,” Alvin Blanco, NTC deputy commissioner, told Malaya Business Insight in a text message.
One of the salient provisions expected from the MC is the proposed schedule to start the ASO in Mega Manila.
Once the final MC is issued, the ASO will commence in Mega Manila likely within 2025, according to Blanco.
As of last year, the digital TV penetration in Metro Manila stood at 84 percent. No update is available at press time.
Based on the DICT’s framework for the DTT Broadcasting (DTTB) migration plan released in October 2017, the ASO in the Philippines was set to have started within four to six years starting from the ceremonial digital switch-on held at the Digital TV Summit in February 2017.
According to the migration plan, ASO can be implemented when the DTTB penetration is 95 percent of a specific service area.
ASO is the process of shutting down analog terrestrial TV transmission and switching over to a digital TV signal.
ASO requires the upgrade of existing TV broadcast network infrastructures as well as changing or augmenting the TV receiver equipment – done either by connecting a digital converter or set-top boxes, or replacing altogether the TV set with an integrated digital TV receiver.
