Azerbaijan eyes full switch to digital broadcasting

/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

A decision on full transition to digital broadcasting will be made by late 2016, Nurshiravan Maherramli, head of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting told Trend. He also mentioned that the majority of countries have already switched to digital broadcasting completely.

“Azerbaijan has also carried out transition to the digital broadcasting, but analogue broadcasting has not yet been terminated,” he said. He also mentioned that the process is dragging out because not all citizens of the country have decoders.

“The problem mainly refers to the citizens of regions, therefore we are trying to prolong the process of disconnection from the analogue broadcasting,” he added.  

Currently, the signal of the digital broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of the country. Subscribers should acquire decoders, the cost of which ranges from 40 to 50 manats ($26-$32) in the domestic market .

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Communications and High Technologies, Elmir Velizade said that a full switch to the digital broadcasting in Azerbaijan requires solving a certain number of technical and organizational issues.

Digital broadcasting works by translating sound and picture into digital data rather than analogue waveforms. Digital links use data compression which in its turn provides for more efficient bandwidth usage as well as higher-quality signal. Digital broadcasting provides crystal-clear picture and sound without fading or interference and enables TV stations to broadcast multiple channels with different programming.

Previously Trend reported that Teleradio production unit is planning to purchase low-power transmitters for the expansion of signal coverage of the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting). The transmitters will be mainly established in the difficult-to-reach regions of the country with weak signal reception of the digital TV.

The regions will be defined as a result of a monitoring which will be held by the State Radio frequency service of the country.