Digital terrestrial television in Denmark

Digital terrestrial television in Denmark was technically launched in March 2006 after some years of public trials. The official launch was at midnight on November 1, 2009, where the analogue broadcasts shut down nationwide.^[1][2]

As of September 2013, six national multiplexes are available. MUX 1 & 2 are owned by DIGI-TV I/S (joint-venture between DR and TV 2) but are operated by Teracom A/S. They broadcast free-to-air channels only. MUX 3 - 6 are owned and operated by Boxer broadcasting encrypted pay-TV only.^[3]

History

Pre-launch

In 1999, a trial was launched in Copenhagen and Zealand. Another trial was launched in 2002 on northern Jutland, broadcasting the three public service channels and an experimental regional channel called "TV 2/Nord-Digital".

In June 2005, a broad majority consisting of Venstre, the Conservative People's Party, the Social Democrats, the Radical Liberal Party, the Socialist People's Party and Danish People's Party agreed that the analogue broadcasts would cease in October 2009.

National launch

The technical launch was made on March 31, 2006 after some months of national trials with one multiplex covering the entire country. It offered the national analogue channels DR1 and TV 2, as well as DR2, a stream for signed simulcasts of news programmes on the three other channels and the MHP services DR extra and TV 2 Extra. February 19, 2008, DR Update started broadcasting on the simulcast channel when this channel was not used for simulcasting (between 17 and 20 o'clock). The multiplex was operated by DIGI-TV I/S, a joint-venture between DR and TV 2.

On June 11, 2007 the Danish Ministry of Culture announced that the six parties had agreed on how the extension of the network of a total of 8 multiplexes would continue. Four multiplexes (MUX 3-6) would be given to a commercial gatekeeper which would be required to have a varied offering and would be chosen through a "beauty contest". DIGI-TV, would be given another multiplex, MUX 2, in addition to its MUX 1. MUX 2 would be carrying the children and culture channel from DR, a parliament channel, more airtime for the TV 2 regions and community television.^[4] MUX7 was on June 29, 2009 allocated to use for mobile broadband, set to launch in 2013.^[5][6] The fate of MUX8 was not decided.

On March 27, 2008 Boxer got the gatekeeper rights for MUX 3, 4 and 5.^[7] Boxer went on-air on 2 February 2009 with its three commercial multiplexes.^[8] The commercial gatekeeper would be required to carry at least one channel from neighbouring countries and a local channel. A maximum of 25 percent of the capacity could be used for "high-pay" channels (such as Canal+).^[9]

The official launch was made on 1 November 2009, which also marked the launch of the new public channels DR Ramasjang, DR K, DR HD (replaced by DR3 in January 2013) and a 24‑hour version of DR Update (replaced by DR Ultra in March 2013).^[10] Also on this day, Copenhagen-based company Open Channel Aps launched a trial multiplex, "MUXCPH", with local channals such as Kanal København.^[11]

Further timeline

• On November 1, 2010, Boxer got its fourth multiplex: MUX6. The conditions at the time were that 15% of the capacity should be given to DR. 35% to other companies, where Boxer were free to use the remaining 50% themselves for DVB-H-services.^[12]
• On July 1, 2011 the Danish Ministry of Culture announced that MUX8 were to be used for digital TV.^[13] A gatekeeper as well as a launch date for MUX8 has yet to be announced.^[14]
• On January 11, 2012 the free-to-air MUX1 switched from MPEG-2 to the newer MPEG-4 codec standard.^[15] The increased bandwidth were used to broadcast DR1 and the TV 2 regional channels in 720p HD^[16]
• On April 1, 2012 the commercial MUX5 converted broadcasting from DVB-T to DVB-T2 to use for HDTV.^[17]
• On August 10, 2012 the previous conditions for MUX6 were dropped. Boxer was no longer required to use the DVB-H standard for broadcast.^[18] It was announced MUX6 would use DVB-T2 for HDTV, set to launch in October 2013.^[19]
• On November 1, 2012 Open Channel's trial of MUXCPH was replaced with the trial of a new DVB-T2 trial multiplex, MUXCPH-2. Now broadcasting both local channel Kanal København as well as international channel France 24, from the TDC radio tower at Borups Alle in the center of Copenhagen, the signal can be received by more than 700,000 households.^[20][21]
• In April 2013, Open Channel got permission to reuse the first MUXCPH for a new DVB-T2 mux with HEVC coding and HbbTV capabilities.^[22]
• On September 26, 2013 Boxer launched its fourth multiplex - MUX6 - which uses DVB-T2 with MPEG-4.^[23]
• On April 5, 2016 Boxer stopped simulcasting HD and SD versions of the same channels, focusing on HD versions only.

Current channels

As of April 5, 2016.^[24][25]

References

External links

• DR's information site about digital TV in Denmark
• DIGI-TV in English