Digital terrestrial TV, it’s still changing from North to South

There are many, even this week, the Italian regions affected by changes in the frequencies of digital terrestrial TV: here's where you change and who must retune.

In view of the final switchover from the MPEG-2 standard to the MPEG-4 one, which will take place simultaneously throughout Italy on September 1, 2021 and will start the final phase of the switch off from the old digital terrestrial to the new DVB-T2, the ballet of frequencies continues in many Italian regions.

This week too, frequencies are being switched off (of an entire multi-regional MUX, to be precise) and changes are being made to the transmission codecs of TV channels. But that's not all, because the latest changes also concern DAB radios transmitted on digital terrestrial frequencies. Already last week there were important changes, with the scrapping of two other regional MUXes and the consequent return to the Italian State of the relevant frequencies.

Addio al MUX La 9

The news that interests more viewers of digital terrestrial is the shutdown with scrapping of MUX La 9. This multiplex has in fact completely disappeared in four regions of northern Italy: Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont.

The channels hosted on this MUX in the four regions concerned have already been moved to other MUXes in recent weeks, resulting in the need to retune the TV or decoder.

Digital terrestrial: changes in northern Italy

In addition to the shutdown of MUX La 9 in recent days there have also been other changes. Within the MUX RETE A 2 the broadcaster Canale 61 has resumed broadcasting after a few days of absence, due to a technical update: the LCN is still 61, but the encoding has changed from MPEG-2 to H.264. Consequently the channel will no longer be seen without a fairly recent TV.

In the interregional MUX Studio 1 (Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna) Fascino TV (LCN 231) made its debut. This station does not have its own programming, but broadcasts that of Donna Shopping Canale 235.

In addition, in Lombardy, in the Telestar MUX, instead of Telecampione, Canale 96 has been inserted, while in the City Radio TV (in Piedmont) and Telecity (in Lombardy) MUXes, Telestar Canale 77 has switched to high definition, so it can no longer be seen on very old TVs.

Digitale terrestre: changes in Sicily

In Sicily too, in the last few weeks, there have been changes and shifts of frequencies. Now, in the MUXes 7Gold Sicilia 88 and 7Gold Sicilia 99, the experimentation of the new H.265 Main 10 codec (the one that will be used for DVB-T2) has been completed.

Digital terrestrial: changes to DAB radio stations

Finally, in the last few days, some changes to radio stations have been reported: in Tuscany, Radio Birikina, Radio 80, Radio Bella & Monella and Radio Piterpan have joined the Radio Digi Toscana MUX.