Digital television in the Netherlands
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The Netherlands now has three major forms of broadcast digital television. Terrestrial (DVB-T/DVB-H), Cable (DVB-C), and Satellite (DVB-S). In addition IPTV services are available.
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[edit] Terrestrial
The Netherlands was the first country to complete the move to digital terrestrial broadcasting on December 11, 2006. The switch-off was helped greatly by the fact that about 90% of the households have cable that continues to use analog distribution. Due to the very extensive penetration of cable systems, usage of terrestrial television in the Netherlands is largely confined to remote rural areas and for portable televisions in caravans, etc.
On September 15, the Dutch parliament and the Dutch government agreed on the date for analogue terrestrial switch-off. The national public television channels, Nederland 1, Nederland 2, Nederland 3 and the regional public television channels will be made available free-to-air. The signal was switched off at the planned date and as of December 11, all terrestrial television broadcast in the Netherlands are digital.
DVB-T transmissions in the Netherlands are provided commercially by KPN daughter company Digitenne. They offer 25 TV channels and 16 radio channels. The national and regional public channels are free-to-air. The Digitenne system requires the use of a special powered aerial.
[edit] Handheld
KPN launched a DVB-H service MobileTV on Thursday, June 5, 2008 with a bouquet of ten channels. The ten channels will be Nederland 1, Nederland 3, RTL 4, RTL 24, SBS 6, Jetix/Veronica, MTV, Discovery Channel, Xite and Nick Toons. RTL24 is a made-for-mobile channel with news and current affair. Xite is a new Dutch music channel..[1]
[edit] Cable
All the major cable television companies are offering at least some digital services. The two largest cable company's are, Ziggo and UPC Nederland, and both offer a HDTV service. All networks use the DVB-C standard.
[edit] Satellite
Digital satellite television in the Netherlands is available via CanalDigitaal, using the Astra-1 satellites and the Astra 3 satellite. It is only possible to register as a customer of Canal Digitaal Satelliet using a Dutch postal address, due to copyright restrictions. A standard DVB-S receiver is used, which can also receive other free-to-air broadcasts.
[edit] IPTV
Since May 1, 2006 KPN offers Mine TV, an IPTV service based on their DSL service, with the ability to receive Video on demand and replay a missed TV episodes besides regular TV programming. Tele2 also offers an IPTV service.
[edit] High-definition
The first trials with High-definition television in the Netherlands began in 2006 with the broadcast of the 2006 World Cup in HD. This was meant to be the beginning of HD broadcasts in the Netherlands. Since then no Dutch television network has made the move to HD. In the first quarter of 2009 the Dutch public broadcaster NPO will start simulcasting Nederland 1, Nederland 2, and Nederland 3 in HD (720p). Most of the programming in the early stages will consists of upscaled versions of their parent channels as in time more programs will become available in HD. Nederland 1 HD will become temporarily available from June 1 until August, 2008 to bring Euro 2008 and the 2008 Summer Olympics in HD, the rest of the time will be an upscaled version of its parent channel.[2]
Currently there are a limited number of HD channels, aimed on the Dutch market, available by cable or satellite:
- BravaHDTV
- Discovery HD
- Eurosport HD
- Film1 HD
- HD-NL
- History Channel HD
- National Geographic Channel HD
- Sport1 HD
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Television in the Netherlands
- List of cable companies in the Netherlands
- Digital television
- High-definition television
[edit] External links
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