Finland facing digital crunch

Just weeks away from digital switchover, Tauno Äijälä, head of Finland’s TV 2007 project group has warned that between 20,000 and 40,000 households will lose television reception on September 9 if they do not acquire a digital TV decoder or receiver.

It is estimated that at the end of July, 73% of households had upgraded to digital television. The majority who had yet to convert said they intended to purchase a decoder within the next few weeks. In homes reliant on a terrestrial antenna, 85% had converted, while in cable TV households the figure falls to 61%. The Finnish authorities recently granted the 1.2 million cable TV households a reprieve until February 2008.