Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy has announced that Regional South Australia and Broken Hill will be the second region in Australia to switch off analogue television transmission.

In a media release issued today, the affected areas will lose analogue television transmissions on 15 December 2010, two weeks before the original deadline of 31 December 2010.

The transition will affect local transmissions of ABC, SBS, Southern Cross GTS/BKN and WIN.

The Adelaide metropolitan market and remote regions of South Australia are scheduled to shut down analogue transmissions by the end of 2013.

In the latest Digital Tracker survey, released by the Government last week, 61 per cent of Australian households have now converted to digital television – up from 56 per cent in the previous quarter.  This figure includes 79 per cent of households in the Mildura/Sunraysia district (scheduled to lose analogue transmission in four months’ time) and 64 per cent of homes in the Regional South Australia/Broken Hill region.

For viewers in regional Australia that may lose access to terrestrial TV broadcasts in the transition to digital, as digital signals may not reach the same distances as analogue, the Government announced in January that those areas will be able to receive digital television via satellite in time for when the analogue transmissions are to be shut down in their respective areas.

Source: DCBDE, DCBDE, Digital Ready