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Two weeks ago, the various government and private groups promoting the spread of digital terrestiral TV organized a parade to remind people that analog TV broadcasts will end in a year, on July 24, 2011. That would seem to be plenty of time to make sure everyone will be with the program, but the statistics point to a less certain future. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications last March, 83.3 percent of Japanese households now receive digital TV signals. However, an NHK survey carried out two months earlier found this number to be only 63.7 percent, and a private research company quoted in the Yomiuri Shimbun said it was "less than 70 percent."
Why the big discrepancy, and, more important, why don't more people have digital capability despite the fact that digital broadcasts have been available for years and the government and broadcasters have been plugging the hell out of the changeover? NHK and the commercial stations have together spent ¥1.5 trillion to convert to digital, and the nation has contributed another ¥200 billion to the project. The important thing to remember is that once the changeover happens, you can't go back. When analog is gone, it's gone forever, and not just because it would be cost-prohibitive for stations to revert. Manufacturers have already stopped producing analog equipment.
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