Analogue television will be switched off in Russia in 2021 and will be replaced by digital TV, said Nikolai Nikiforov, head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.
Of course, analogue broadcasting will be switched off in 2021. In fact, there was a postponement from 2015 to 2021 due to the fact that, again, funding was reduced and construction shifted to the right. Therefore, the deadlines have been objectively postponed. But beyond 2021 there will definitely be no analogue broadcasting.
The official noted that from 2021 the state will stop subsidizing analogue TV. According to Nikiforov, after this “it will be turned off instantly.” At the same time, the minister admitted that some constituent entities may retain it, “based on their regional interests.”
Not without difficulties
“There will be no subscription fee”
Deputy Head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Alexey Volin - about the reduction of analogue television broadcasting, the fight against pirates and “death groups” in social networks
1.2 million households may be left without TV during the transition to digital broadcasting, said the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, Konstantin Noskov, on December 11 during a government hour in the Federation Council. The representative of the Cabinet of Ministers assured that everything will be fine - volunteers will help install the consoles, and they will cost from 700 rubles. Ensuring that networks do not take advantage of the hype is the task of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
The FAS warned back in October that the transition to digital TV would not be smooth sailing. “If operators are ready to provide a service, but the population is not ready for technical, economic and other reasons, then this can create tension - accordingly, both in the markets and in society,” emphasized deputy head of the department Anatoly Golomolzin. At the same time, he admitted that a transition is needed - this way Russians will receive free TV channels in the highest quality, which is now only provided by a paid package.
console
Set-top box for receiving digital television signal
Photo: RIA Novosti/Evgeniy Biyatov
FAS opened a case due to rising prices for digital TV set-top boxes
Stores have already taken advantage of the excitement. FAS began proceedings due to an increase in prices for digital TV set-top boxes. Electronics chains Eldorado, M.Video and Yulmart were also caught artificially inflating prices. An administrative case was opened against them.
“In the low price segment, price increases range from 30% to 100%. In the segment over 1 thousand rubles, the increase ranges from 5% to 83.9%,” the FAS clarified. However, the networks denied all accusations. The Association of Retail Trade Companies states that stores, on the contrary, quickly sent an additional batch to the Tver region at a price of less than a thousand rubles. And the excitement itself, AKORT is confident, arose due to shortcomings of executive authorities in terms of informing the population.
Why can they delay switching off analogue?
Changes in the shutdown schedule were caused by the risk that if the analog signal was switched off at once, a significant part of the population would not be able to watch federal television channels. As RBC previously reported, experts warned the Ministry of Industry and Trade that from 13.5 to 30.6% of all televisions used in the country (or 16-34 million units in absolute terms) are capable of receiving only an analogue television signal. As a result of the shutdown of analogue broadcasting, more than 800 thousand households, or 1.4% of the total, will not have access to digital terrestrial television broadcasting, Senator Lyudmila Bokova previously stated.
FAS allowed tension in society due to the transition to digital broadcasting Technology and media
RTRS, citing data from the research company Mediascope, admitted that 82% of Russian households are ready to switch to digital. The remaining 18% will have to buy a new TV capable of receiving a signal in the DVB-T2 format, or acquire a special set-top box costing 0.8–2 thousand rubles.
The owners of old televisions are mostly low-income citizens. The latest available data from Rosstat for 2016 shows that 13.6% of the population had an income below the subsistence level, J'Son & Partners noted earlier.
Video: RBC
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Attempt No....
Businesses will be required to pay for television to Russians from remote regions
The Ministry of Communications has developed a bill according to which operators will provide citizens with free broadcasts of 20 TV channels and three radio stations
The federal program for the transition from analogue to digital format began almost 10 years ago. Between 2009 and 2021, 174 billion rubles were spent on re-equipment of networks, including more than 97 billion from the state treasury. The transition period itself should cost 30 billion.
The deadline for the final transition to digital has been postponed several times. At first we were talking about 2015–2016. At that time, the transition costs were already estimated at 15 billion rubles. Then the shutdown of analog TV was postponed to 2018 due to funding cuts. They assured that there would not be another shift, but it still happened - on January 1, 2019. The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications claimed that the TV channels participating in the second multiplex asked for this: there was a lack of funds due to the fall in the advertising market. Then the deadline was postponed for a couple of weeks so that everyone had time to buy the necessary equipment.
The Tver region launched the second multiplex on November 9. The next connection steps are distributed as follows. On February 11, this awaits the Magadan, Penza, Ryazan, Tula, Ulyanovsk and Yaroslavl regions, as well as Chechnya. The second wave - April 15 - will include Moscow, the Moscow region, the Amur region, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Mordovia and 15 other regions. The last stage will take place on June 3 and will affect the remaining regions, including St. Petersburg.
A volunteer girl sets up a TV set-top box for digital broadcasting for a resident of Tver
Photo: RIA Novosti/Valery Melnikov
The Russian government decided on a phased transition on November 15. “Despite the fact that today televisions that cannot receive a digital signal are almost completely out of use, someone still has them. And these people cannot be left without television,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev emphasized then.
Who will help the poor
“Compensation for costs to the poor is solely the task of the regions, which must identify socially vulnerable groups and decide what targeted assistance can be provided to them,” says Volin.
Some regions have already begun to decide on funding for the program. For example, in the Chelyabinsk region it is planned to allocate 305 million rubles for these purposes in 2018–2019. 258 thousand people can count on help, but each of them can only count on 1 thousand rubles. lump sum payment. Only 37 thousand people living in remote settlements where the digital signal will not be available have the right to count on 6.5 thousand rubles. compensation for the purchase of equipment for satellite TV, clarified the press secretary of the government of the Chelyabinsk region Dmitry Fedechkin.
In Noyabrsk, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the local budget allocated 5 million rubles for digital set-top boxes for the poor, based on no more than 2 thousand rubles. per person. At the same time, 2.5 thousand people may need such compensation. In Ugra, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the maximum amount of compensation is set at 5 thousand rubles. per person, on Sakhalin - up to 10 thousand rubles.
As it will be
The head of the Tver region will sum up the first results of the introduction of digital TV
A warning about the transition will appear on the TV screens. Afterwards, you will have a set of 20 high-quality TV channels at your disposal - two packages, otherwise multiplexes. In the first - Channel One, “Russia 1”, “Match TV”, “NTV”, “Channel 5”, “Russia-Culture”, “Russia 24”, “Carousel”, OTR, “TV Center”; in the second - REN TV, Spas, STS, Domashny, TV3, Friday, Zvezda, Mir, TNT and MuzTV.
“This is the largest project in the world to build a digital television network,” emphasized the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications Konstantin Noskov. In test mode, the inclusion of digital TV has already been tested in several regions. For example, 10 TV channels were broadcast in the Perm region. In November, VGTRK and the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network announced that they had transferred regional branches to digital format in all 85 constituent entities of the Federation. All of them will be available in the first multiplex.
Employee of the Tver branch of the Russian television and radio broadcasting network
Photo: RIA Novosti
"Digital" without any complaints
Vladimir Putin noted the experience of the Tver region in the transition to new television broadcasting technology
Local TV channels and others not included in the multiplexes will continue analogue broadcasting. However, they are not happy with this arrangement. Last week, the management of the Novosibirsk Regional Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (OTN) prepared an appeal to the federal authorities with a request to include regional TV channels in the digital multiplex. Without this, they will lose both their audience and, as a result, advertisers - many viewers clearly will not take the time to constantly switch from analog to digital. In addition, the population will also suffer, being left without regional news.
Novosibirsk OTS is not the first to sound the alarm. Earlier, the general director of television and radio in Tatarstan, Ilshat Aminov, proposed forming a third multiplex and including regional channels there. He doubted that officials would be able to “force TV viewers to work on Ilyich’s light bulb when there are modern, amazing light sources.”
Author of the quote
The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications promises to decide by the end of the week whether regional TV will be allocated a separate slot for broadcasting on one of the federal channels. However, in any case, this is a temporary solution.
Who will pay for the phased shutdown of “analog”
If a decision is made to phase out analogue broadcasting, then the TV channels of the first multiplex may have to compensate for the costs of analogue distribution from the federal budget, Volin admits. The decision on this issue will be made by the government, the deputy minister emphasized.
Traditionally, the state compensates broadcasters included in the first multiplex for signal distribution in cities with a population of less than 100 thousand (100-) people. But in 2021, only digital broadcasting will be subsidized; no funds have been allocated for analogue. In the draft budget for next year, subsidies to Channel One, NTV, Match TV, Karusel, Channel Five and TV Center are set at 7.1 billion rubles, which is 21% less than in 2018 -m. Similar subsidies to the three VGTRK channels and the Public Television of Russia are not disclosed separately, since these broadcasters also receive subsidies for content production.
RBC sent requests to the channels of the first multiplex.
All channels of the second multiplex will be fully operational in digital format throughout the country by the end of this year, Volin promises. Until now, they broadcast digitally only in cities 50+. Most of the infrastructure of digital multiplexes, on the contrary, is located in small settlements - cities of 50-. Accordingly, with full-fledged digital broadcasting, the main costs of paying for the signal in 50 cities must be borne by broadcasters. The channels of the second multiplex do not disclose their current expenses for broadcasting in analogue and digital formats (RBC also sent them inquiries). A top manager of one of the television holdings does not rule out that the state will have to subsidize the “analog” channels of the second multiplex in 2021. “We’ll soon decide what to do with their analogue broadcasting,” Volin promises.
Why switch to digital TV?
To transmit a digital signal, a smaller range is required than to transmit an analog signal. In simple words, where one analogue television channel could be transmitted, a couple of dozen digital channels can be transmitted. This means that if 20 channels were available in “analogue”, then in “digital” there can be several hundred of them. With all this, this signal will be much more resistant to various interferences and much less demanding on the power of the transmitting antenna.
Another disadvantage of an analog signal is that its encodings can create significant interference with other signals and types of data transmission. Therefore, modern countries are striving to completely abandon analogue television broadcasting and switch to a digital format.
You'll have to spend money
Dmitry Medvedev confirmed that the transition from analogue to digital television will begin in February 2021. According to the head of the Government, the process of switching off the old broadcast format should take place in the most comfortable conditions for Russians, without unnecessary bureaucracy.
In this regard, Konstantin Noskov recalled that Russians need to think about purchasing equipment capable of receiving a digital TV signal. Those who do not want to give up their beloved old TV will be asked to purchase a special set-top box for receiving satellite broadcasts. The cost of the device will be about 4.5 thousand rubles.
