The Panamanian National Public Services Authority (ASEP) announced yesterday that the analog blackout’s phase I will be fully implemented next October 1st, 2020 in Panama, Panama Oeste and Colon provinces. According to the entity, the TDT migration’s phase I provinces have an up to 23 fully digital contents offer already available.

‘With this partial analog blackout, digital TV in Panama establishes a relevant milestone in terms of technology and telecommunications. This fact places the country as one of the first in the region in achieving this goal, which will culminate in the total analog blackout’s implementation in the coming years’, said Luis Powell, National Telecommunications Director at ASEP. 

According to ASEP, analog blackout’s phase I covers 65% of households with TVs in the country, which impacts on 2.4 million people. During the press conference offered yesterday, ASEP announced that, from today on, those TVs who do not have the DVB-T format (standard chosen by Panama for its DTT migration) will not be sold anymore. To check this measure is implemented, the Panamanian regulator will develop an operation in all stores on October 10th and 11th, to control that TVs sold have the DVB-T tuner incorporated, as established in AN11944 resolution (December 19th, 2017).

DTT migration process in Panama includes four stages. Phase II covers Cocle, Herrera, Los Santos and Veraguas provinces. Phase III includes Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro, and phase IV, the Darien province.