EDITORIAL: Digitizing TV broadcasts

A year from now, countless people will likely experience the frustration of turning on their TV set only to get a blank screen.

Analog services will terminate July 24, 2011, as the nation's terrestrial television broadcasting system goes digital.

A nationwide survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications found that 11 million households as of the end of March were not equipped to go digital. The figure must be brought down to zero before the switchover. But this may prove easier said than done.

According to the communications ministry survey, 83.8 percent of all households have already gone digital. But a survey in January by the Broadcasting Culture Research Institute of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) found that only 63.7 percent of households had done so. A March survey by a private research institute put the figure at nearly 70 percent.

The communications ministry, which has been promoting digitization as a national policy, is aiming to get the number up to 100 percent by April. But we wonder if this can be done.

Switching from analog to digital is a worldwide trend. NHK and commercial broadcasters combined have already spent 1.5 trillion yen ($17 billion) on relay stations and transmission equipment. The government has invested some 200 billion yen in this mega project. Given the digitization of other communications services, we fully understand there can be no going back.

We also realize it would be difficult to continue analog service after shifting to digital programming. It would require about 20 billion yen a year in combined additional costs for NHK and commercial broadcasters. As it is, analog broadcasting equipment is no longer made.

The problem is that TV broadcasting is indispensable to society today as an information medium. It serves as a "lifeline" for people in times of disaster by providing updates. At other times, television is a convenient medium of mass entertainment. Everything must be done to ensure nobody is left behind when broadcasting is fully digitized.

The communications ministry ought to step up its efforts by providing further information in language anyone can readily understand. This is the only way to get all households to go digital in time for the switch.

Meantime, ensuring good TV reception wherever people live remains a major challenge. In some neighborhoods, reception is poor because buildings deflect airwaves or apartment complexes don't have ultra-high-frequency (UHF) antennas. Some mountainous regions are also beyond the reach of digital airwaves. How should these cases be handled?

The ministry has been contacting the owners of such buildings and apartment complexes by phone to ask them to take necessary measures. It is also organizing neighborhood meetings to explain the digitization process.

The costs of antenna installation and other work are to be borne by the owners in principle, but government subsidies are also available to partially cover the costs. Since the end of March, the ministry has been giving its call center numbers and other information at the start of every analog program.

There must be people who have not yet gone digital in the hope that prices of digital equipment will come down at the last moment. Also, some senior citizens and others likely don't realize how analog services differ from digital ones. The ministry must try harder to reach them.

Follow-up surveys are scheduled for this autumn and next spring. The ministry will have to deal flexibly according to the results, and take firmer steps if necessary.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 27