Public Still In Denial About Digital TV Switch Over – TVTrade.ie
1000’s of homes may have blank TV Screens come 24th October
There are concerns that the lrish Public will have ignored the frequent warnings about the impending analogue switch off on October 24th this year.” Whilst sales for the required set top boxes to switch to Saorview are steady there are still an estimated over 400,000 homes in Ireland reliant on the analogue signal to receive the Irish channels. In total 665,000 TV’s in Ireland are still receiving their Irish channels on analogue” advises David Maher of TVTrade.ie.
A recent National Survey showed that a shockingly high 48% of respondents ‘did not know’ when they were going to switch and a further 29% have decided to make a last minute switch in September or October. Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, TD, advised last month that “it is essential that all those who have not yet taken the important steps to ensure they can continue to enjoy their TVs when the analogue network is switched off in October do so as soon as possible. Digital TV is available now, so we are keen to encourage people not to wait until the last minute to make the switch.”
“Current monthly sales of set-top boxes are running at about 20k units however this will need to jump to over 150k units per month” explains Maher. “TVTrade.ie are seeing a significant increase in enquiries however we are mindful of the situation in Scotland when the digital switch over deadline was reached in June last year. The peak month for sales was not the month before the changeover but the month after! Between July 2011 and May of this year over 193,000 units of set top boxes were still being purchased meaning a significant number of homes in Scotland were not able to view television channels in this time period.” Maher adds. “This could be down to reluctance or uncertainty in knowing what to purchase.”
To obtain Saorview you need to either buy a special Saorview TV or a Saorview set-top box to use with your existing television. When choosing a set- top box both the generic and the Saorview approved boxes offer exactly the same channels. TVTrade.ie advises that the generic Digital Terrestrial TV receivers are usually at a lower cost than the official Saorview boxes, but normally don’t offer Digital Teletext. The U.K. & Irish combo boxes are proving hugely popular, using the Irish digital switch over as a chance to add both the Saorview channels and over 100 free U.K. satellite channels on a single box. Once the chosen product has been purchased there are no subscription fees to pay.
Guidance and information on the purchase and installation of the Saorview set-top box is available online at www.tvtrade.ie .