Norway has commenced the first official transmissions of its digital TV service. Norges Televisjon and its RiksTV platform went live in the county of Rogaland on September 1. As a relatively late entrant Norges Televisjon, owned by Telenor, NRK and TV2, will use the MPEG-4 compression standard.
Oestfold, Oslo, Akershus, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark, Hordaland, Moere and Romsdal, Sogn and Fjordane, Hedmark, Oppland and Soer-Troendelag will be added to the network by end of the year.
Aust-Agder, Vest-Agder, Nord-Troendelag, Nordland, Troms and Finnmark will follow in 2008.
Analogue signals will be progressively shut down six months after the establishment of the digital service. The final region to cease analogue transmissions will be Finnmark in November 2009.
