According to research carried out by the website Facile.it, 11 million Italians have a TV set in their home that does not support the new digital terrestrial system. Here are the research data
Many more than previously thought have at least one television set in their homes that is not compatible with DVB-T2, the second generation digital terrestrial television that will completely replace the current standard from next year. This is what emerges from the data collected by mUp Research and Norstat on behalf of Facile.it.
In numbers, there are 11 million non-compatible televisions still present in Italian homes. More than one Italian family out of two, therefore, has one or more old generation televisions that they will not be able to use when the "switch off" from the old to the new digital terrestrial television takes place. According to the research, moreover, 4 million families in Italy (20.9% of those surveyed) do not even have a compatible television set. These numbers are surprising, given that for a couple of years it has not been possible to sell devices (TVs but also decoders) that are not compatible with the new digital terrestrial system.
DVB-T2, how to understand who needs to change their TV set
Two new TV channels have been enabled on digital terrestrial TV, on the numbering 100 and 200. These are test channels useful to understand if your TV set supports the new DVB-T2 signal.
To carry out the test just tune in channel 100 (RAI property) and channel 200 (Mediaset frequency) and check if the writing "Test HEVC Main10" appears. If you see the writing means that the TV supports the new digital terrestrial, otherwise you will be forced to buy a new TV set. We remind you that the switch-off of frequencies is currently set for June 30, 2022.
Research data on the new digital terrestrial
The numbers from mUp Research and Norstat show that 25.2% of respondents claim to own at least one device whose compatibility is not certain, because the user is not able to understand it. This shows that one Italian out of four does not know how to know if his TV is compatible with DVB-T2. Another interesting fact is that 30.2% of those interviewed stated that their non-compatible TV set was purchased less than three years ago, when all TV sets should have been compatible with the new standard.
Did the TV Bonus fail?
At this point, we should ask ourselves what was the real effectiveness of the famous 50 euro "TV Bonus" allocated by the Government to stimulate the updating of TV sets and prepare the market for the arrival of the new digital terrestrial television. Despite the fact that 60% of those interviewed by mUp Research and Norstat say they have heard of the bonus, over half have not understood how it works. A quarter of the sample does not meet the economic parameters for obtaining it (ISEE less than 20,000 euros). Finally, more than 40% of the sample do not plan to change their TV set, but only to buy a new decoder in order to be able to watch DVB-T2 broadcasts when the final switch off takes place. But, apparently, no one is in a hurry to do so, also because there is one last very interesting fact to evaluate: 7.3% of the sample interviewed by mUp Research and Norstat declares that when the old signal is switched off, they will literally do without DVB-T2 broadcasts.