The Dutch cable operators Rekam and Caiway have become the first in the country to plan a complete analogue switch-off. They announced their plans during a meeting of the programme councils on Saturday, October 3.
On October 10, 2010 (10/10/10), the cablers will completely cease analogue distribution on their networks. Since 2007, both have offered free digital cable tuners to all their subscribers and between 80% and 85% of all homes connected are believed to have digital reception.
“Most current TV sets already have built-in digital tuners,” according to a statement by Rekam, “Now they will be able to better use them.” The operators will make inexpensive cable tuners available for additional TV sets in the home.
The two operators will use the freed up capacity to offer new HD channels and other digital services. At a later date they will launch a campaign around the switch-off, in order to inform their customers.
The channels in the basic digital tiers on the networks are distributed without encryption, so every digital cable tuner can be used around the house in order to receive the cable signals.
