Italy postpones MPEG-4 and DVB-T2 switchover

The government changes the dates of the television switch off, which should have taken shape on September 1, 2021 (with the introduction of a new broadcast standard for television channels, the MPEG-4) and on June 30, 2022 (with the start of broadcasting in DVB-T2, the second generation digital terrestrial).

This means that families will have more time to organize and change TV sets if outdated.

National televisions will leave the current standard (MPEG-2) to adopt the new one (MPEG-4) – starting October 15, 2021 – but on a substantially voluntary basis. The TVs themselves will choose which of their channels to radiate in Mpeg-4 (the new standard).

The meeting at the Mise
During today’s meeting at the Ministry of Development – sources from Viale Mazzini confirm – Rai announced that it will broadcast its specialized channels (such as Rai Storia and Rai Sport) in Mpeg-4, while it will wait for the main ones. The main channels (such as Rai 1, Rai 2 and Rai 3) would be broadcast in simulcast, both in Mpeg-2 (old standard) and in the new standard (Mpeg-4).

Families, therefore, will need a television capable of receiving MPEG-4 to watch Rai’s specialist channels, while the main ones – the flagship networks – will remain visible to everyone (even those with an old device). Mediaset and la7 have not clarified their strategy, which will certainly be similar especially for the Biscione: some networks in Mpeg-4; the main ones still in Mpeg-2.

The government does not impose obligations, therefore. It only asks that a number of “representative” programs switch to the new standard, the MPEG-4, from October 15, 2021. This first step of October 2021 will be accompanied by a robust advertising campaign that will push families to switch TV sets, thanks even the € 100 discount bonus available to everyone, regardless of income.

Within the year, in one of its measures, the government will determine when and how the switch to MPEG-4 will become mandatory. The original deadline of September 1, 2021, therefore, has fallen.

And the second deadline is also postponed, that of June 2022 which should have marked the transition to Dvb-T2 (second generation digital terrestrial). The change will take place “starting from January 1, 2023”, in a manner that the government will always decide with its own provision. Italy24News