Migration of Free-To-Air Television Channels to Digital Television

Mr David Ong Kim Huat asked the Minister for Communications and Information how many households in Singapore will need to buy the set-top box to enjoy clearer digital television when free-to-air television channels migrate to digital television by the end of 2013 and 2016 respectively.

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I thank Mr David Ong for his question on our migration to digital TV broadcasting.

MediaCorp will begin to broadcast its seven Free-to-Air (FTA) channels digitally in the DVB-T2 broadcast standard (Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial) in December 2013. The current analogue FTA channels will continue to be broadcast alongside the digital channels, to provide households in Singapore with sufficient time to migrate to digital television.

In line with ASEAN's agreed timeframe, the completion of Singapore's digital switchover will take place no later than 2020. This will put us on par with the other countries in the world that have completed their digital TV migration, such as the UK and Japan. With digital TV, Singaporeans will soon be able to enjoy higher quality images and surround sound. At the same time, going digital will also free up valuable spectrum that can be reallocated for better and faster wireless services for our public and businesses.

Given the massive scale of this nation-wide project, we will be progressively rolling out the digital broadcasting infrastructure. In other words, when MediaCorp begins its digital broadcast in December this year, some Singaporeans will be able to enjoy the benefits of Digital TV, while others may have to wait until full island coverage is completed. Further details will be announced by MediaCorp and the Media Development Authority (MDA) later this year.

Households with Pay TV subscription typically do not need to do anything to benefit from digital broadcasting. This is because they already receive digital FTA channels through their pay TV service. We estimate that around 60% of our over one million households currently subscribe to Pay TV. The remaining 40% of Singapore households will need a DVB-T2 set-top box and indoor antenna to continue receiving our FTA channels on their existing TV sets after the analogue channels are switched off. DVB-T2 is the standard that we will be adopting for digital broadcast. We recognise though that households do switch to new TV sets from time to time. These households could consider buying a new TV with a built-in DVB-T2 digital tuner. Such TVs are also referred to as integrated digital TVs (IDTV). Households with IDTVs would only need an accompanying indoor antenna to receive digital FTA signals.

There are also some households with Pay TV subscription that have additional TV sets not connected to their Pay TV service. These households will need to purchase a DVB-T2 set-top box and indoor antenna for these additional

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TV sets to continue receiving our digital FTA channels.

Consumers who wish to purchase DVB-T2 set-top boxes and IDTVs can identify this equipment by looking out for MDA's digital TV consumer labels. Retailers island-wide have been encouraged to affix these labels on compatible DVB-T2 equipment, to allow for easier identification by consumers. We also announced in March that MDA is looking into how to minimise the impact of this digital switchover, particularly on the lower income households, and will make more details available by next year.

With digital broadcasting, FTA TV in Singapore will enter a new milestone. I am certain that Singaporeans will be able to benefit from this new development.