Digital Television Transition Faces a Dead End

The television transition from analog to digital has been pushed back from the initial deadline set by the government. Even though the converter and technology are available, only a few TV stations switching their broadcast transmission from analog to digital, or even splitting their communications to both analog and digital.

The government complains about the slowness of the conversion progress and blames it to the House of Representatives (DPR). It house has been ignoring and refusing to pass the draft of conversion regulation proposed by the government for quite some time. According to the Communication and Information Minister, Rudiantara, the government had been submitting the conversion draft to the House since 2010 and even testing the digital broadcasts since 2017. The nonexistence of the digital conversion regulation through the revision of Broadcasting Law prevents the government to enforce it on the TV stations.