Philippine analog television to shut down by 2023

In a few years, noisy and unclear reception on household televisions will be a thing of the past as the Department of Information, Communications and Technology sets a new mark to fully shift to digital TV.

During the Digital TV Summit 2017 earlier today, DICT National Information and Communications Technology Planning chief George P. Tardio said that the government is targeting to phase out analog television broadcast in four to six years time or as late as 2023.

As for the TV networks, they must complete the roll out of digital service before 2018. There already a number of digital TV channels available today but the coverage is still lacking in rural areas.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a memorandum circular on the “Standard for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcast Service,” making the shift to the Japanese’s Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial back in 2013. The original shutdown of the analog broadcast was originally in 2015 but due to technicalities in implementing an official digital terrestrial television platform, it was delayed.