October 20th is the day of the first mini switch-off: 15 channels will broadcast only in MPEG4, 9 from Rai and 6 from Mediaset, cutting out the older TVs, the non-HD ones. Here is the complete list.
The first real deadline of the troubled switch-off process is about to arrive: on 20 October, in fact, RAI will switch off 9 channels currently broadcast in MPEG2 in favor of MPEG4 coding; on the same date Mediaset will do the same for 6 of its channels. This means that all non-HD TV owners will start seeing the black screen. And we know that, for Italians, this is the only real signal that it’s time to move, that something needs to be done.
The deadline has been postponed by a few days compared to the initially planned 15 October and also indicated by the new roadmap, probably to be able to manage a changeover in the middle of the week and not close to the weekend (October 15 is Friday, 20 Wednesday).
Fortunately, the deadline arrives with the two TV Bonuses still active and with large funds: a little help to mitigate the inevitable inconveniences, at least the economic ones, for that minority portion of users who do not have an HD TV and therefore compatible with MPEG4 .
Here are the channels that will no longer be broadcast in MPEG2 from 20 October.
Therefore, on 20 October RAI, which is making a lot of communication in this sense on its channels, will switch all its channels to MPEG4 except the three main ones and Rai News 24. From 20
October the RAI channels broadcast only in MPEG4 which will no longer have the MPEG2 version, will be the following RAI channels:
- Rai 4 (LCN 21)
- Rai 5 (LCN 23)
- Rai Movie (LCN 24)
- Rai Premium (LCN 25)
- Rai Gulp (LCN 42)
- Rai Yoyo (LCN 43)
- Rai Storia (LCN 54)
- Rai Sport+ HD (LCN 57)
- Rai School (LCN 146)
So coding changes that concern many “noble” LCN numbers on which even the laziest will fall for sooner or later.
Of course, the most popular channels still remain in MPEG 2 and will probably migrate in the first months of 2022, but the Rai “package” that inaugurates the switch-off is certainly full-bodied.
The Mediaset channels have also leaked in these hours and will be broadcast only in MPEG4. These are:
- TGCom24 (LCN 51)
- Italy 2 (LCN 66)
- Boing Plus (LCN 45)
- Radio 105 (LCN 157)
- R101 TV (LCN 167)
- Virgin Radio TV (LCN 257)
A package, that of Mediaset, “softer” which, in compliance with the needs of reaching the maximum advertising audience, especially for the Christmas period, still leaves many channels in MPEG 2, including 20, La 5, Iris and Cartoonito, as well obviously to the main three. But it is certain that even the passage of TGCom24 will sound like a real alarm bell for users who are not yet adapted to MPEG4, adding to that of RAI.
The dates that will lead even the most important channels to MPEG4 are not yet set: much will depend on the sales results of TVs and decoders in recent months. Moreover, the good success of the Bonus TV Rottamazione and a certain vivacity of the TV market, also due to the Serie A totally streaming on DAZN, bode well.
In the meantime, all is silent on the part of the other commercial broadcasters: both La7 and Sky (as regards free digital terrestrial channels) are still in the pits on the front of the migration of digital channels to MPEG4 coding. The other broadcasters will probably wait to understand the impact that RAI and Mediaset will have on audiences, while monitoring the trend in sales of TVs and decoders.
On Tivusat the farewell to MPEG2 has already begun for some time and for Mediaset it continues in forced stages
In the meantime the shutdown of MPEG2 also on satellite on the Tivusat platform proceeds in forced stages and according to the programs.
On satellite next October 31st, it will switch to MPEG4 Italia 1 (Rete 4 has already completed the migration); on January 1, 2022 it will instead be the turn of Canale 5, again for what concerns the satellite.
As far as RAI is concerned, however, at the moment there is less clarity: it seems that the satellite channels for which MPEG2 will be switched off have not yet been decided, assuming that this happens, given that on satellite the bandwidth is less scarce and the need for less stringent migration. Certainly, however, with the recent remodulation of the RAI transponders on satellite and the introduction of regional TG channels (which are already in MPEG4), the elimination of some channels in MPEG2 would certainly save bandwidth, to the full advantage of broadcasting quality. wave, lately less good than in the past. In reality, the encoding management between digital terrestrial and satellite is different (they use different encoders at different bitrates) and therefore the
In the case of Tivusat, however, the impact of switching off MPEG2 concerns more external decoders. In fact, whoever has a TV with integrated satellite tuner and CAM probably already has a device compatible with MPEG4. Furthermore, on Tivusat a further standard passage is not envisaged: whoever sees today and in the next few weeks will probably not have any other problems for years.
