Argentina’s public telco has unveiled plans to build new broadcasting towers and increase digital terrestrial television (DTT) coverage across the country.
With the switch-off scheduled for August 2019, Argentina will bring free-to-air DTT to over three million people across 100 towns which currently have no coverage.During 2017, Arsat will build 15 broadcasting towers for the areas of Victoria, Ituzaingó, Córdoba, Corrientes, Mainqué, Mar de Ajó (Buenos Aires), Tartagal, Río Tercero, Roque Sáenz Peña, Puerto Iguazú, Orán, Oberá, Río Grande, Chilecito and Laboulaye.
“Our job is to complement the tasks developed by the Sistema Federal de Medios Públicos, which is part of the free-to-air digital TV,” said Rodrigo de Loredo, president, Arsat. “Some of the towers are almost ready and will switch on soon, while the rest will be built throughout the year.”
The announcement comes after 2016 saw no major improvements to the DTT network, as Arsat decided to relegate the DTT deployment to the background once coverage reached 80% of the population.
After Mexico - the only Latin American country with 100% digital FTA TV - Costa Rica, Brazil and Ecuador, Argentina is set to become LATAM’s fifth territory to switch off analogue television.
