Mexico hastens toward DTT


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 05 November 2015





The Mexican Government is planning to switch off analogue TV as scheduled, despite the fact that up to 17 million people may not be able to receive DTT.


The Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) claims to have delivered 6.5 million DTT-ready TVs and set-top boxes (STB) to low-income families and maintains that it will hand out over three million more before the 31 December deadline. The SCT says that this will lead to over 90% coverage meaning that the analogue switch-off can take place without breaking the law.

However, there are conflicting reports about the coverage. In Monterrey, where analogue TV has already been switched off, it has been reported that over half a million people are not receiving any free-to-air (FTA) TV, despite it being one of the country's regions with the highest digitalisation.

In the poorest regions, such as Chiapas, where over 70% of families are on low incomes, digitalisation seems far away.

Mexico's analogue switch-off has been delayed many times, and the population complains that the necessary technology hasn't yet been distributed. But this time, the IFT and the government say that DTT will definitely be switched on in less than two months.