OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2012. After the analogue terrestrial TV shutdown in Lithuania at the end of October, around 15 thousand families (1.2 per cent of respondents), which had not prepared to switch to digital TV in due time, were left without television. This was revealed in the survey carried out by RAIT for TEO during the period from 7 to 18 of November.

According to the survey, 5 per cent of the respondents, around 60 thousand families, were not entirely ready to use the digital TV: at least one television set in their homes was not equipped to transmit digital TV programmes.

Other Baltic countries – Latvia and Estonia – have shut down their analogue terrestrial TV signals already in 2010. The surveys carried out in Estonia showed that a month after the shutdown of analogue terrestrial television, 0.5 per cent families were without television. In neighbouring Latvia, the process of transition to digital television was not that smooth, and those wishing to buy television equipment and services had to wait for quite a long time.

According to Nerijus Ivanauskas, Chief Marketing Officer of TEO, the provider of digital TV services, Lithuania’s transition to digital television went fairly smoothly, although it was possible to achieve better results.

"As a result of changes in TV broadcasting technologies, specialists also see a change in consumption habits. More and more consumers are opting for television, which allows full control of the content: to record their favourite TV programmes and watch them at convenient times, even to start over (rewind) the already running TV programmes", - N. Ivanauskas said.

According to him, most of these possibilities are provided by interactive television, broadcasted over the Internet networks. "Experts predict that the number of its users in the world will increase three-fold over the next five years. It is likely that Lithuania residents will also give priority to this television", - N. Ivanauskas said.

The fact that interactive television is gaining popularity in Lithuania is also due to TEO actively expanding its fiber-optic network, which allows watching interactive television and using a number of additional services. At the end of September 2012, TEO fiber-optic (FTTH) Internet access services were available for use to 747 thousand households or 62 per cent of the country’s residents.