Cuba to begin analog blackout in Q2

Cuba is preparing to take the next step in its transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT), which will involve a partial analogue blackout.

According to Grisel Reyes, president of IT cluster Geic, Cuba is working on fostering the conditions needed to begin the partial blackout in the second quarter of this year.

In the partial blackout, a single TV channel's analogue signal will gradually go offline across different territories depending on equipment availability.

At the end of last year the island had a DTT coverage of 60%, 115 installed transmitters, and almost 2mn receivers in the market, reported local dailies.

In addition, there are some 30,000 set-top boxes and 8,000 hybrid television sets in the market. While coaxial cable and antennas are also available, these are still scarce goods given the demand.

Some of the challenges in Cuba's digital switchover are overcoming physical limitations in transmission centers, freeing up spectrum, and addressing the country's scarcity of equipment for the consumer market. The switchover is expected to be completed in 2023.