The government issued provisional licenses Friday to 17 television stations planning to begin terrestrial digital broadcasts in December.
Toranosuke Katayama, minister of public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications, handed certificates of the licenses to representatives of 16 private companies and NHK.
The stations are to begin test transmissions this summer prior to the Dec. 1 start of broadcasts in parts of the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas.
TV sets and tuners capable of receiving terrestrial digital broadcasts are likely to be in stores in the fall, according to industry sources.
But the broadcasters face some problems in promoting the new system, which they say will provide high-definition images, interactive programming and mobile phone services, among other features.
Preparations for the mobile phone services, which the TV industry hopes will ignite demand for digital broadcasts, have stalled over patent fees for data-processing systems.
In addition, doubts have been raised about the feasibility of interactive programming, given cost-effectiveness problems because of an expected low-key start to digital services.
Under the circumstances, the telecommunications ministry said this week the government plans to encourage consumers to buy digital TV sets in a promotion drive aimed at bringing total sales to 100 million by 2011.
Targets have been set at 12 million sets in 10 million households by the 2006 World Cup soccer finals in Germany and 36 million sets in 24 million households by the 2008 Beijing Olympics, according to the ministry.