The large-scale shutdown of analogue TV distribution on German cable networks will gain momentum in the second half of 2018 after several pilot projects took place in spring.
Market players such as Vodafone (formerly Kabel Deutschland), PŸUR, M-Net, wilhelm.tel and komro as well as Deutsche Telekom’s cable service for the housing industry will remove analogue TV channels in July and August in cities including Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Bremen, Dresden, Leipzig, Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Regensburg.
From the around 17.6 German million cable households, almost 3.1 million still received analogue cable TV in 2017. Unitymedia was the first German cable operator to have completed analogue switch-off in July 2017. The remaining companies want to accomplish the transition to fully digital distribution by spring 2019.
The joint industry initiative Digitales Kabel, which coordinates and supports analogue switch-off, informs about the individual transition dates on its website.
