Switching off analog TV by 2023 should continue —Andanar

The plan of the government to phase out analog television and fully migrate the industry to digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) by 2023 should continue, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said on Wednesday.

At the Palace briefing, Andanar said the PCOO is part of the technical advisory committee on the project led by the Department of Information, Communications and Technology (DICT).

“Dapat lang ituloy natin yung pag-digitalize ng ating transmission dahil napag-iiwanan na tayo ng ating neighboring countries,” he said.

(We should continue the digitalization of our transmission because we are being left behind by our neighboring countries.)

According to him, digital broadcasting can be used for emergency broadcasts like the "state of the art" TV network NHK.

In 2017, DICT National Information and Communications Technology Planning chief George Tardio said, "We are targeting four to six years of simulcast before the analog shutoff.”

In November 2013, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a memorandum circular on the "Standard for DTTB Service," following an order of then-President Benigno Aquino III for the industry to shift to digital TV using the Japanese standard.

GMA Network Inc. said it was working on a digital terrestrial television technology "far superior" to those already out in the market. It has allocated P416 million to the project. — BM, GMA News