page_title: Digital television transition
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Digital television transition / Transitions completed / Europe
caption_attribution_description: Español: La television analogica fue terminado en Espana entre 2009 y 2010. TVE La 1 fue representada en este foto.English: Analog television shut down in Spain between 2009 and 2010.
context_page_description: The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover, the analog switch-off, the digital migration, or the analog shutdown, is the process in which older analog television broadcasting technology is converted to and replaced by digital television. Conducted by individual nations on different schedules, this primarily involves the conversion of analog terrestrial television broadcasting infrastructure to digital terrestrial, a major benefit being extra frequencies on the radio spectrum and lower broadcasting costs, as well as improved viewing qualities for consumers.
  The transition may also involve analog cable conversion to digital cable or internet protocol television, as well as analog to digital satellite television. Transition of land based broadcasting was begun by some countries around 2000. By contrast, transition of satellite television systems was well underway or completed in many countries by this time.
context_section_description:  Albania: The original analog switch off deadline was set to be 17 June 2015, however this was missed because of troubles. Analog channels were first shut off on 10 September 2018 in the areas of Durrës and Tirana, but they were restored the following day because the supply of decoders wasn't enough to cover the demand. The date was pushed several times. However, in October 2019, Analog channels were finally shut off for good. Analog satellite broadcasts stopped in 2002 shortly before the introduction of digital satellite.
   Andorra completed its switch-off on Tuesday 25 September 2007.
   Armenia: Has shut down analog signals on 10 July 2015.
   Austria: Began analog switch-off on Monday, 5 March 2007, progressing from the west to the east. The analog broadcast was shut down nationwide at the end of 2010 regarding the main transmitters. The last analog translators were switched off on 7 June 2011.
   Azerbaijan: Began analog switch-off on Sunday, 17 October 2010, completed on 17 June 2015.
   Belarus: Analogue broadcasting was disabled 15 May 2015 in the UHF band and 16 June 2015 in the VHF band (channels 6-12). The final analogue switch-off occurred at 4 January 2016.
   Belgium: Media regulations are under regional legislation. Flanders switched off analog television on Monday 3 November 2008, while in Wallonia, all analog services were switched off on Monday, 1 March 2010, making the country completely serviced by digital signal. However, analog cable is still used by many cable subscribers, so therefore a cable switchover is unlikely to happen in the near future.
   Bulgaria: Bulgaria launched a free-to-air platform in the Sofia region, starting in November 2004. The Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) has said that it received 6 bids for the licence to build and operate Bulgaria's two nationwide DTT networks. A second licence tender for the operation of 3 DTT multiplexes was open until 27 May 2009. Following the closing of this process, Hannu Pro, part of Silicon Group, and with Baltic Operations has secured the license to operate three DTT multiplexes in Bulgaria by the country's Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) Bulgaria completed the transition to digital broadcasting in September 2013.
   Croatia: Analog television broadcasts were switched off for all national TV channels on Tuesday 5 October 2010 at 12:35 and for local TV channels on Saturday 20 November 2010.
   Cyprus terminated all analog transmissions on Thursday 30 June 2011 and moved to digital-only transmissions in MPEG-4 on Friday 1 July 2011.
   Czech Republic: The last analog retransmitters in the south-east Moravia and the northern Moravia - Silesia were switched off on Saturday, 30 June 2012.
   Denmark switched off all terrestrial analog services at midnight on Sunday 1 November 2009. Analogue cable was switched off on 9 February 2016. Analogue satellite were terminated by 2006 when DR 2 and TV3 ended their analogue signals on the Intelsat 10-02/Thor satellite at 0.8°W. DR 2 was the last ever broadcast using the D2-MAC standard when it closed on 1 July.
   Greenland launched digital services in Nuuk in August 2002. The last settlement that upgraded to digital was Siorapaluk in 2012, with analogue switched off in October.
   Faroe Islands launched DTT in December 2002. Most of the analogue signals were switched off immediately.
   Estonia's analog television was switched off completely on Thursday, 1 July 2010.
   Finland ceased analog terrestrial transmissions nationwide at 04:00, Saturday, 1 September 2007 (the switch-off was previously planned for midnight but a few extra hours were added for technical reasons). This was controversial, as the cost of a digital TV set in Finland at the time was heavily criticised and saw a substantial decrease in how much the television license cost. Cable TV viewers continued to receive analog broadcasts until the end of February 2008.
   France switched off all analog services (terrestrial, satellite and cable) on Tuesday, 29 November 2011. This included overseas departments and territories such as Guadeloupe, French Guiana, 
caption: Analog closedown warning broadcast in Spain
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