Starting in January 2022, in many Italian regions, TV repeaters broadcasting on frequencies already assigned to 5G will be turned off. Among these TVs there are many Sky channels.
With the switchover to Mpeg-4 encoding of the first 15 RAI and Mediaset channels, which took place on October 20, the roadmap of the switch off to the new second generation digital terrestrial has come to life. A roadmap that has been reshaped and postponed several times in the past, but that must now run because the fateful date of June 30, 2022 is approaching.
This is the day, now very close, by which all the frequencies in the 700 MHz band, now occupied by local and national TV, must be freed and granted to telephone operators who won the record tender at the end of 2018, thanks to which the State has already collected 6.5 billion euros. This is the so-called “refarming” of frequencies and has been expected for years, not at all new. Those frequencies will be used to expand the 5G network, so no cohabitation between TV signal and phone signal is possible. Today, however, on those frequencies transmit important broadcasters, such as Sky channels carried via digital terrestrial. Already starting from January 3, 2022, in northern Italy, the 700 MHz frequencies will have to be freed, what will happen to Sky channels?
Refarming frequencies: which channels will be switched off
To know which TV channels will be impacted by the refarming of frequencies, we must look at the radio channels in the 700 MHz band: on each radio channel more TV channels are transmitted, thanks to Mpeg compression and multiplexing technology (from which the famous term “MUX” derives).
Nella banda a 700 MHz oggi vengono trasmessi 12 canali radio UHF, con frequenza compresa tra 694 MHz e 790 MHz (ogni canale radio occupa 8 MHz), alcuni dei quali sono stati già spenti nei mesi scorsi.
Su queste frequenze, nel nord Italia, Sicilia e Sardegna viene trasmesso il MUX Mediaset 1, che contiene i seguenti canali:
- TV8
- Cielo
- Sky TG24
- Sky Atlantic
- Fox
- Premium Crime
- Premium Stories
- Premium Cinema 3
- Sky Sport Calcio
Un altro MUX che trasmette sui canali della banda 700 MHz, quasi tutta Italia, è il MUX Mediaset 5, che contiene i seguenti canali:
- Sky uno
- Premium Action
- Sky Sport Uno
- Sky Sport 24
- Sky Sport Calcio
- Sky Sport
Come funziona Sky sul digitale terrestre
Sky nasce come emittente satellitare e non ha a disposizione alcuna frequenza sul digitale terrestre, per questo le “affitta” da Mediaset. The contract that allows Sky to broadcast its channels on the Mediaset 1 and Mediaset 5 MUXes expires at the end of June and at the moment there is no official news of renewal.
Not only: for several months Sky has no longer included digital terrestrial in its Web page of offers to customers, but those who have subscribed to the offer in the past continue to see Sky channels on digital without any problems.
What happens on January 3, 2022
The refarming of frequencies starts well before January: already on November 15, TV repeaters will be switched off in Sardinia, where, however, the Mediaset Muxes are transmitted on different frequencies.
From January 3, 2022, refarming will start in the northern regions of Italy (Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino Alto-Adige, Veneto, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Emilia-Romagna), where the number of users is much higher and where Mediaset occupies some of those frequencies with its MUXes. Including the MUXes that carry Sky channels.
On those MUXes, however, Mediaset also broadcasts some of its channels and when it will be forced to turn off MUXes 1 and 5 the space will not be enough for all. Does this mean that Sky on DTT will be switched off?
There is nothing official about this, but some Sky customers on digital terrestrial have received (back in February 2021), an offer to extend the service until March 2022. It is not to be excluded, therefore, that from January 22 Sky channels will be moved to other temporary frequencies in northern Italy waiting for June 30.
Date by which, of necessity, Sky will have communicated what will be the future of its subscribers on digital terrestrial. Still to be decided, however, is the fate of dozens of local Italian TV stations that could disappear from January 2022.