By Alex O'Hara
This weekend Hawke's Bay and the West Coast will become the first New Zealand regions to switch from analogue to digital TV.
It promises to give consumers better quality pictures and sound, and more channels, but thousands of viewers are likely to be caught unprepared to get the new digital-only signal.
"We've been receiving in the region of 3000 or 4000 units a month, and we're expecting that to ramp up to at least 10,000 units a month and grow from there," says RCN group general manager John Thornhill.
For 52 years television has evolved in front of our eyes, and Broadcasting Minster Craig Foss says this is another historic moment.
"Absolutely huge," he says. "Be black and white to colour, or on a radio from AM to FM – it's new technology being delivered to our living rooms. It's massive."
The call to switch over was made back in 2010.
"We're doing this to not only free up spectrum for the new generation of mobile devices, which the analogue spectrum currently uses, but also to actually offer a huge range of the new opportunities digital brings," says Mr Foss.
Hawke's Bay and the West Coast will be the first to switch this weekend, and already 96 percent of people have gone digital.
"Almost any TV can go digital with the right equipment," says Greg Harford, Going Digital national manager. "All you need is a set-top box an aerial or a satellite dish, depending on where you live."
While it sounds easy, 4 percent of people still aren't ready to go digital. The Going Digital campaign has a budget of $45 million which they'll need to continue to roll out as the rest of New Zealand begins to go digital in stages next year.
3 News