In TV industry, the ongoing debate about the timing and procedure for analogue television switch-off. I have recently met representatives of the leading media groups and provider of the digital television network of the company “Zeonbud” in the State centre of radio frequencies (UCRF), which discussed the issues of measurement and coverage analysis of analog and digital networks.
As it became known, “Zeonbud” has not agreed with some decisions of the meeting and sent a letter to the national Council of Ukraine on television and radio broadcasting with a proposal to make adjustments to those decisions.
In his letter, “Zeonbud” informs that representatives of the Industrial television Committee (ITC) decided to order UCRF calculations and measurements of the exclusively digital network. And this at a time when leading TV channels in a letter to the Prime Minister regarding the shifting of periods off analog broadcasting indicated as the main problem of disconnection of the analogue of the probability of presence of the zones where there is a signal of analog networks, but no signal digital network.
From the point of view of “zeonbud” this means that all future work that will perform UCRF on the order of ITK will have a practical sense because they do not provide the ability to analyze this “main problem”. The operator insists that to obtain reliable information about the problems and consequences of switch-off of analogue television, you must carry out calculations and measurements of the analog coverage, as well as a comparative analysis.
The letter also notes that the basis for such illogical decisions of the representatives of ITK was the dubious statement of the leadership of UCRF that the center does not have the measuring equipment for analog networks, and in Ukraine there is no Method of measuring the network coverage of analog television.
This statement really looks doubtful, because of analogue terrestrial TV in Ukraine has been operating for over 65 years. It turns out that during these decades at the professional level has not been measured coverage analog networks. But then the question arises, on what basis the national Council and the TV channels claim that the coverage of the analog network is 97%? And where do TV channels know about the presence and size of the “main problem”?
Moreover, the letter contains information of the specialists of the UCRF that almost 30% of the transmitters of some media groups that claim to have the greatest coverage, for a long time do not work, and a large number of existing transmitters working in part-time capacity.
The operator of the digital network also notes that especially the inconsistent looks of the representatives of ITK waiver of coverage measurement of analog networks, given the fact that “Zeonbud” has announced its readiness to pay for the work of UCRF for these measurements.
Summing up, “Zeonbud” has indicated that he considers the failure, TIC order of measuring coverage of analog networks is associated with the reluctance of TV channels to admit publicly the advantage of covering a digital network.
This advantage in the future still will increase significantly, after all, from a professional point of view of the specialists of the UCRF, covering digital television networks, after analogue television switch-off will increase by 20– 40% due to improvement of electromagnetic situation in the air and the allocation of the digital network low frequency range.
We will remind, in February, the operator of the digital network has already publicly called on the television company of the country “to measure the” covering of their networks, and even expressed willingness to pay measurements the best specialized companies in the world in case it turns out that the digital network coverage is smaller than analog.
As you can see, while the call remained unanswered, moreover, as is evident from the letter of the statement in the national Council, the broadcaster shall make every effort to avoid public comparative analysis of the coverage.
