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Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast switch off analog TV.

Updated: BTQ7 farewells remembers the glory days as Queenslanders switch off analog TV.

2013-05-28_1536Another day, another city -or in this case three regions- as Queenslanders turn off analog television.

At 9am this morning Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast made the permanent switch to digital TV.

“Today’s switchover represents the largest switchover to date with over 1.19 million households making the historic transition,” Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Conroy said.

“I am pleased to say that Brisbane, as Australia’s tenth official switchover region, experienced a smooth transition, with the majority of households choosing to convert to 17 free-to-air channels and better quality picture and sound before today’s deadline.”

“The Brisbane switchover brings the tally to nearly 5 million households nationwide and 1.7 million households across Queensland watching digital-only TV. This means that we are now well and truly on the home stretch, with five regions and six months left before Australia’s switchover to digital-only TV is complete.”

Next on the hit list are regional and Remote Western Australia on 25 June, followed by Darwin in July, and Sydney, Melbourne and Remote Central and Eastern Australia in December.

More info, including subsidy details, are available at digitalready.gov.au

Updated: BTQ7 sign-off begins at 1:50.

23 Responses

  1. David Knox, thank you for getting stuck into Max. I’m sick of those “idiot box” comments & others who proudly say they don’t own a TV, yet spend all day using their computer to check Facebook, watch cats on YouTube, & most ironic of all, watch heaps of TV. I have hundreds of DVDs & books I’d like to get to one day, but FTA television (mainly ABC & SBS channels) keep offering compelling programs.

  2. @SSquirrel
    To be fair you’ve taught me a lot over the years:)
    But it’s a very nerdy term. I wouldn’t recommend using it in discriminating company- and now i’m ashamed of myself for using it on this august interweb site:(

  3. I hope that before the last areas are switched off that the networks do a special program to mark the end of analogue with a retrospective of great moments in the history of australian analogue television. wouldn’t it be great if it was broadcast across all networks.

  4. Actually I enjoyed that, unlike the Canberra switchoff (and most other places) where the regular program was simply cut off and replaced by a snowy screen. Did Channel Seven Brisbane split their digital and analog signal or did digital viewers see the signoff as well?

  5. David, what beach photo was that, that you put up before, was it Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise)? if it was and I think it was, that beach is a bloody Ripper!! Soooo!! Good!

  6. So now every time it rains hard, we have no TV…. Sorry Mr Conroy, but some TV is still better.

    I enjoyed the irony of throwing to the Brisbane traffic chopper on 7 though =)

  7. I live in the inner city 1km from the CBD & yet I still can’ get a signal from SBS NIT or Briz 31. If I move to the other side of my building I will be able to view these channels…
    Digital service has not made any difference…

  8. Conroy is hailing a majority being able to watch digital TV as a success. So 49% of households stopping watching FTA TV would be OK!

    The networks will be hoping 99% will have at least SD digital capacity.

  9. Vale analog. End of an era.
    I’m going to miss it because I live in a re-entrant on the side of a hill (Mt Coot-tha in BrisVegas) and every time it rains we lose all the SBS digital signals while SBS analog inexplicably soldiered on, rain, hail or shine. I suppose that streaming internet TV and Iview is the real answer.

  10. Turns out my building’s MATV has been converting the digital channels to analogue for those who hadn’t converted (as well as providing digital channels)

    Appears as though analogue (of sorts) will continue for those in high-rises

  11. @ David Knox

    Perhaps you should have added a disclaimer to your link at the bottom of your item, to possibly avoid a backlash from your followers, who may in all innocence click on it expecting factual/actual assistance.

    Because this mob nearly deserve a B/S, Drama, Comedy and Advertorials ( for Authorised Antenna Installers) Ratings Classification of their own, and no doubt as soon as the last analogue service is switched off ( a 6 months countdown), they will either disappear completely over the “Digital Cliff “, or remain frozen in time, still transmitting their very own “Pixelated” test pattern.

  12. Sorry Mr Conroy I was forced to convert to digital I didn’t choose to. Unfortunately we don’t get a better quality picture all the time.We too relied on analogue when we lost the signal and now my little b/w tv/radio that lived in my kitchen is no longer.Boohoo!

    1. Seriously? How are you enjoying Borgen? Head First? Did you try Jabbed? American Horror Story? The Americans? Nurse Jackie? I was surprised with The Audience on ABC2 last night. Everyone thinks of TV as The Voice and MKR but drill deeper.

  13. Nine just flicked the switch, 10 was 2 minutes behind(!) but had a message saying you could continue watching on digital. Sevens 1950s station ident and test pattern showed a bit of style. Didn’t catch ABC or SBS. As Broadcast Australia provides transmission facilities for the government networks guess it was just a straight switch-off!!

  14. Yeah, I sat and watched my old analog TV as the picture went blank. That was my excitement for the day. Lets just hope we don’t have any problems with the digital signal any more. In the past I used to resort to analog if digital lost it’s signal, now we won’t have anything.

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