According to the information reported on Diario Financiero’s web version this last Tuesday, March 16th, Chilean FTA TV channels, gathered through Anatel, an entity that brings together the country’s FTA TV channels, requested the Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel) to grant a new deadline to complete the total migration to DTT. According to Pisapapeles, the channels asked to put  the analog blackout off in Chile until 2026.

Some of the Chilean FTA TV channels grouped in Anatel are Telecanal, La Red, TV+, TVN, Mega, Chilevision and Canal 13.

At first, the analogue blackout was to take place in Chile in 2020. However, the country’s Government confirmed in May last year that migration to DTT in the country would be postponed until 2024, setting greater demands for TV channels to implement the migration. Likewise, according to Diario Financiero, the request for the channels also includes removing intermediate stages before implementing the analog blackout in the whole country.  

According to the terms of the original plan, which was to be finalized in 2024, between 2020 and 2021 the channels must have 30% of their concessions under digital technology. In the second year, 50% must be digitized; the third must fulfill 80%; and 100% by the fourth year.