Digital TV takes the country by storm

  • 2008-04-03
  • By Marge Tubalkain-Trell

TALLINN - Estonia is experiencing a television explosion the likes of which has never been seen before.
The country is leading the region in digital coverage with plans to go completely digital by 2010. Lithuania, by contrast, will go digital by 2009 but won't have full coverage until 2012. Latvia has no fixed plans yet but it must conform to the EU deadline of 2012.
This combines with an explosive growth in the number of new TV stations since digital broadcasting allows for more efficient usage of channels. It also has advantages for the viewer such as subtitles in different languages, electronic TV programs and higher picture quality.
Anna Karin Modigh, Vice President of SES Sirius AB, a major satellite company in the region, explained that it is governments themselves that are driving the change.

"It's the governments around the world who want us to go  digital. The viewer will get a better picture and quality of sound.... For me, the upcoming HDTV channels are more exciting: It makes a great difference," she said.
The process of connecting the entire country to digital TV has been going on for a number of years. 
 "I can name more than one starting point, for example 2004 when the government agreed to the digital broadcasting development conception," Peeter Sookruus from the Culture Ministry told The Baltic Times.
"All [western] European countries have already done that or are working on it," he said.
The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Communication said it is well on target to achieve this goal and that most of Estonia was already covered.
Digital television has grown at a phenomenal rate. The digital television committee launched operations at the end of last year.
The first area to go digital was the island of Ruhnu, which turned on its signal on March 31. Immediately afterward, the analogue transmitter was switched off. Digital television will be immediately available and can be viewed with a standard receiver.

All free domestic channels can be viewed over digital television. At present, viewers can watch five free Estonian TV channels along with the commercial-free Neljas program and MTV Estonia.
Urmas Oru from TV channel Kanal 2 told TBT about the future of new channels
"It's too soon to say what is going to happen. This or next year nothing is going to happen, but I don't think these new channels will compete with bigger ones 's the new ones are more like small niche channels," he said.

European Union regulations require that all analogue signals must be switched off by 2012.