Italian free-to-air platform tivùsat is to migrate all channels to the DVB-S2 encoding system.
The change will also see the Eutelsat-delivered service move from MPEG-2 to the more efficient MPEG-4. At the same time the majority of channels will move from standard definition to high definition.
Under the roadmap put forward by tivùsat, Sky, TV8 and Cielo will switch to MPEG-4 at the beginning of December, TGR Rai will make its debut on December 18, in MPEG-4, but in the SD format.
From January 2021 Mediaset channels La5, Iris, TGCom 24, Cine 34, Italia 2, Mediaset Extra, 20, Boing, Cartoonito, Focus, and Top Crime will switch formats, though flagship channels Canale 5, Rete 4 and Italia 1 will be among the last to switch.
“From January 1st, hundreds of thousands of users will have to change decoders – stressed tivùsat MD Alberto Sigismondi. “It is expected that in December 2020, about 250,000 families will have an SD TV box without having digital terrestrial. These families, if they do not decide to change platforms, will have to equip themselves with a new HD decoder to continue watching their favourite channels in the first months of 2021”.
All available tivùsat HD boxes are compatible with DVB-S2.