Portugal Telecom has put 24 new Digital Terrestrial Television transmitters into service which, together with the existing 16, will contribute to the access of 60% of the Portuguese population to a new television experience at no extra cost with enhanced image and sound quality and innovative features.
More than six million Portuguese now have DTT coverage, thus largely exceeding the initial forecast, reflecting Portugal Telecom’s continuous bet on a fast implementation process of Digital Terrestrial Television technology.
It is worth recollecting that Portugal Telecom has established a goal of 80% coverage of the Portuguese population by year end and assumed the commitment of full coverage until the end of 2010, thus creating conditions to anticipate the deadline set by the Government to switch-off analogue television by 16 months. Portugal will thus become the European Union country with shorter DTT implementation time.
To learn about the covered areas or the list of transmitters in service, please access website http://tdt.telecom.pt or call the helpline 800 200 838 cost-free.
What will change with DTT?
Digital Terrestrial Television will replace the current analogue terrestrial broadcasting (that provides the four national generalist channels RTP1, RTP2, SIC and TVI as well as RTP Azores and RTP Madeira), allowing a more efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum. The European Commission has determined the introduction of this technology in every European Union country, establishing a 2012 deadline for analogue switch-off.
With this change, the Portuguese will gain access to enhanced image quality and digital sound, apart from functionalities only available in pay-tv such as:
- TV Guide – shows the programming detail of every channel;
- Programming Bar – facilitates checking which programs are being broadcast at the same time on other channels as well as the ones which will be broadcast next;
- Scheduled Digital Recording – allows planning and recording of content broadcast by television channels;
- TV Pause – allows real-time halt of the broadcast and to resume it later;
What will I need to watch DTT?
To watch free-to-air television in digital format, you will just need an antenna, a TV set with integrated DTT reception or a decoder connected to the TV set. Decoders and TV sets must comply with European standard DVB-T and compression format MPEG-4/H.264.
There are various models and brands available for sale on the market: a few are simpler, just with signal reception functions; others have more advanced features such as TV Pause or Recording capability.