Costa Rica, Brazil and Ecuador are next for DTT in LATAM
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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 15 February 2017

Costa Rica will switch off analogue TV by the end of the year, while Brazil and Ecuador’s switchovers are scheduled for 2018.

Mexico will remain for at least another year as the only Latin American country to have switched off analogue TV, according to ANTV, Colombia’s TV authority. Costa Rica will be the second territory in the region to complete TV digitalisation, as its switch-off is scheduled for December 2017.

Ecuador was supposed to be the second Latin American country to complete the digital switchover, but the Government announced a postponement in January.

Brazil is on track to meet its deadline and is preparing to switch off analogue TV for Sao Paulo’s 12 million inhabitants by the end of March.

According to ANTV, Argentina and Colombia will be next, as the digitalisation process is expected to conclude by August and December 2019, respectively.

Chile and Paraguay have scheduled the switch-off for 2020 and Peru’s is set for 2025.

Deadlines are difficult to predict for the rest of the Latin American countries, in which the process has not been fully scheduled. Some, like El Salvador, were forced to rethink their DTT plan and start from scratch.