Update on Progress of Conversion to Digital TV

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what is the current progress of the conversion to digital TV; and (b) what are the plans to increase awareness and hasten the conversion.

Mr S Iswaran: Today about four in five 1 Singaporean households are receiving DTV either over the air or through their Pay TV subscription. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is reaching out to the remaining households to get them DTV-ready before analogue TV signals are switched off on 31 December 2018.

In April this year, IMDA launched the DTV Starter Kit to encourage more households to be DTV-ready. The DTV Starter Kit allows Singaporean HDB households without a Pay TV subscription to redeem an indoor DTV antenna and digital set-top box with free installation, or enjoy $100 off selected DTV equipment at participating electronics stores. As of 31 Aug 2018, more than 207,000 households have redeemed their DTV Starter Kits. I encourage all households who have not yet redeemed their DTV Starter Kits to do so right away.

IMDA has also been working closely with community partners like the People's Association, the Silver Generation Office and Voluntary Welfare Organisations to help households become DTV-ready. This includes organising roadshows in every town, deploying service counters in high-traffic areas such as markets, hawker centres and community clubs, and conducting briefings at community events. Since June, Mediacorp has also run on-screen crawlers to inform those who are still viewing analogue channels to switch to DTV. Mediacorp will soon reduce the size of the screen area displaying content on analogue channels, which we hope will remind viewers to switch over to DTV early.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 79:

1 Based on the July 2018 monthly Digital TV (DTV) survey commissioned by Mediacorp, 87% of Singaporean households are receiving DTV – 76% through their Pay TV subscription and 11% through over the air signals. The survey has a margin of error of ±5%.