Digital TV switch moved 5 years to 2023

The Philippines moved back its target to switch off analog TV signal and go completely digital by five years to 2023 from 2018. Even with the help of the Japanese government, whose ISDB standard the Philippines will adopt, policy makers said it will take sometime not only for TV stations to put in the large investments needed to switch to the digital format, but for households to fully embrace the standard. The government estimates that around 80% of the country’s 14 million households still use CRT, or cathode ray tube, TV sets. TV stations will have to invest billions to put up transmitters to blanket much of the country with their digital signal since they use line of sight to broadcast signals. (Dow Jones)