Next August 14th, Costa Rica will implement the analog blackout, by which TV network will only be accessed through digital devices capable of reproducing the ISDB-TB standard format, known as ‘Japanese-Brazilian’, and selected by the country for this process.

The Costa Rican Social Assistance Mixed Institute (IMAS) had announced the delivery of STBs to 7,500 families in extreme poverty conditions on July 15th, to migrate to DTT. The measure, according to the institute, was focused in family groups that do not have hired pay TV services or a TV set that receives the DTT network, or that live in areas where the analog blackout will take place. According to Francisco Delgado, Vice Minister of Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica, one STB per family would be delivered.

Some of the reasons that motivated the delays in the date to implement the analog blackout in Costa Rica -which will be carried out in two phases-, were that the location of the broadcasting towers located in the Irazú Volcano National Park, which were in landslide danger.