Italy prepares for satellite and terrestrial upgrades

Italian free-to-view satellite platform Tivùsat has begun a publicity campaign to inform viewers of the forthcoming upgrade of the platform to the DVB-S2 standard.

Tivùsat’s free-to-air channels will transition to DVB-S2 to enable viewing in HD and the SD versions of the channels will be shut down. The campaign to let users know about the change will being in Milan with an event in the central Piazza Argentina this week, with events in Genoa and Naples to follow on June 11-13 and June 18-20 respectively.

The platform is using the forthcoming European football championships to highlight the benefits of the transition. The tournament will be broadcast on pubcaster Rai’s 4K satellite from June 11.

Other events that will be aired in 4K in the course of this year will include the Tokyo Olympics – assuming it goes ahead.

Tivùsat is stealing a march on terrestrial sister platform Tivù in its transition to the most up-to-date broadcast standard. The digital-terrestrial platform is scheduled to complete its transition to the DVB-T2 standard next year, with the first shut-downs of DVB-T transmission set to take place from this September.