Tomorrow, the screen of my bedroom TV will go blank. Not that I’m someone who goes to bed to watch TV, but it was kind of nice watching a Sunday morning talk show while having a croissant in bed. My livingroom set is all digital, being connected to a digital network like 99% of Belgian TV sets. Unfortunately, Belgium will stop all over-the-air analog TV Nov 3rd 2008, claiming that the remaining 60,000 antenna connected sets belong to only ‘occasional’ viewers not worth the effort.
Unlike the US or EU countries like Holland and France, Belgium will digitize just two over the air TV channels: all the commercial stations long decided that only digital satellite, TV over fiber and digital cable were worth investing in. Since Belgium has virtually no antenna viewers left nobody will really care, but unfortunately I happen to be one of those rare antenna viewers, as getting a TV cable in my bedroom would involve drilling holes in five solid concrete walls. Watching this US video put a smile on my face: yes, ‘going digital’ can be a pain 
Did the “500 digital channels” tsunami change your viewing habits?
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.
When I was visiting England over the summer, I was at first itching to move my fingers along the remote and check out all the channels, but was almost immediately appalled at the selection. It was mostly repeats and then more repeats of very old, very bad, 80’s tv shows, and oodles of specialized reality tv shows. A sad decline.
We in Canada have a little longer before we are forced into the digital age. The only good news is that the average cost of new (normal sized) televisions has not risen substantially in years.
[Blog author: "Thanks for commenting from Canada VioletSky. I've held the English Sky-digital-TV remote too, and yes, it's hard filling up 200 channels with original programming
Electronic items like TVS are indeed basically the only items that never seem to get more expensive: for the price of a regular 22 inch set I bought 10y ago I can get a top of the line flatscreen these days. I gave up on getting a cable into my bedroom: it's too much trouble in these (fake) "historic houses". "]
Comment by VioletSky — November 3, 2008 @ 6:04 pm |
Ah we won’t be affected until February 2009. Still have a few months before it hits here.
[Blog author: "I noticed. But the US wisely chose to broadcast digital TV over the air. Belgium made the annoying choice to only digitize public TV, like PBS. When we both want to watch different programs, one has to be recorded, since the second TV set can no longer be used. "]
Comment by Peace — November 4, 2008 @ 6:13 am |