British people with older TV sets in their Portuguese holiday homes may find a blank or fuzzy screen next time they visit the country.

Portugal’s national roll-out of digital television is now underway. The Algarve’s main analogue transmitter on Foia, in the Monchique region, has been switched off, as has the main transmitter for Lisbon.

Together with the switching-off of the Palmela transmitter when the implementation began on 12th January, this means that most of the southern part of Portugal now only receives digital TV transmissions.

Reception of digital TV requires a digital compatible television or a set-top box. While most modern televisions have this capability, old CRT televisions and some of the earlier flatscreens may need the addition of a set-top box in order to continue receiving terrestrial television broadcasts.

According to local news reports, the switch-off has caught many people unawares. Set-top boxes, however, seem to be widely available across the country, with some even spotted on supermarket checkouts. Households with satellite or cable TV connections are unaffected by this change.

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