Vietnam leads in ASEAN in switching off analog television nationwide in 2020, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung at the press conference on January 11 in Hanoi. 

This move is under the project “Digitization of Terrestrial Television Broadcasting by 2020” (the TV Digitalization project), aiming to save frequency bands for 5G roll-out.

Vietnam leads in ASEAN in switching off analog television nationwide in 2020. Photo: MIC

Over the past nine years, the TV digitization project has achieved and exceeded all of its major goals, helping to fulfill the ASEAN-wide commitment to switching off analog TV by 2020.

Vietnam is the 78th out of 193 countries worldwide to complete the TV digitization process.

Under the project, frequency bands previously used for TV transmission have now been freed for 5G deployment. The digital terrestrial television has now covered all 63 provinces and cities nationwide, reaching about 80% of the population, compared to only 50% of the population in 2011.

The TV digitization has attracted the participation of private entities such as Audio Visual Global (AVG), Southern Digital Television Company Ltd (SDTV), Northern Digital Television Company (DTV), besides the state-owned VTC. 

All local television broadcasters have become more professional by focusing only on producing content and leaving the transmission work for other technical entities.

For TV digitization, Vietnam embarked directly on advanced DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting), and is one of the first six countries in the world in using this technology, skipping the DVB-T technology.