TV changed the history of Spain and now Spain is going to change the history of TV. The analog signal is giving way to the digital signal, which means better quality, more channels and new services. In Lanzarote there are exactly six months to say goodbye to the television of a lifetime. It will be on June 30, 2009 when the analog signal is turned off and DTT becomes, by force, a routine. And the island is included in the first phase of substitution of television technology together with the island of Gran Canaria. Fuerteventura and La Palma will have to wait longer, a year, until December 31, 2009. La Gomera, El Hierro and Tenerife will follow the calendar of the rest of the country and will be "turned off" in the third phase, which will culminate in April 2010.
According to the latest data, the digital terrestrial television signal already reaches 85% of the population of the Canary Islands. Currently there are 16 distribution centers in service distributed by strategic points of the islands that will be expanded to cover the coverage rate set by government projects. Thus, and according to the Canary Agency for New Technologies, the coverage in the archipelago is, as of December, relatively high, even above the Spanish average. Of course, its director, Juan Ruiz, launches a warning to sailors: "We are still far from covering the objectives".
Precisely for this reason, and to ensure that the signal reaches all corners of the islands, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce has signed an agreement with the Government of the Canary Islands for the co-financing in the installation of repeaters in places of difficult coverage. Thus, in the next decade there will be an investment of 37 million euros to cover the so-called shadow areas and improve broadband.
But not everything will depend on coverage. It is also necessary to take into account the adaptation of collective antennas and the need to equip the home with a DTT device.
In fact, the Ministry of Industry has launched a campaign of six million euros with the aim of encouraging Spaniards to leave Digital Terrestrial Television under the tree this year as a gift. With the slogan "Don't get caught by the bull, this Christmas give DTT" society is reminded of the need to be equipped for the analog blackout. The objective is to increase the penetration of this technology in homes, promote knowledge of its advantages and increase the number of buildings with the adapted antenna. The campaign encourages to take advantage of Christmas gifts to equip the home in that sense but also insists on how important it is not to leave the adaptation for the last day.
The truth is that in October -are the latest available data- the sale of DTT equipment was exceptional, reaching 675,000 receivers, with which an accumulated 13.6 million units were reached. We will have to see if the Three Wise Men manage to exceed this year the figure of last January, the highest recorded so far.
