Lower Normandy goes digital on March 9

Lower Normandy will be the second region in France to switch to all digital broadcasting when the remaining analogue terrestrial television transmitters sign off on March 9.

About 600,000 households in the region have a television set. The vast majority (90%) have cable or satellite and are not affected., and the remaining 60,000 must make the transition to digital if they haven’t already done so.

Technical assistance is offered to individuals over the age of 70 who need guidance with the switchover process. A number of students have been specially trained to provide the assistance, which is free on request.

Just a few weeks ago, analogue switch-off took place in the Alsace region, which resulted in few problems. There was some criticism that the operation took place in the middle of winter when a lot of people were snowbound. Also, not all transmitters seemed to be operating at full powe, causing reception problems.

Furthermore, there were reports that some older DVB-T receivers could not properly tune in to all the DVB-T channels. According to the consumer organisation Que Choisir, between 300,000 and half a million tuners across France could be involved. However, the manufacturers insist this is not the case.