Television broadcasts are changing

Television broadcasts will undergo a significant change at the beginning of 2025, when the distribution of channels broadcasted in standard definition will come to an end. In the near future, Digita will release specific dates for when these standard definition channels will be discontinued, and there will be a complete transition to HDTV broadcasts, including hotels. This change is almost as significant as the transition to digital broadcasting in Finland in 2007.

This shift will impact hotels that currently use terrestrial digital television broadcasts and do not yet have TV receivers equipped with the so-called T2 tuner.

In many hotels, the situation is unclear because a large number of TV receivers have been purchased over the years, and it’s uncertain if all these TVs are compatible with the new HDTV broadcast standard. The rules and guidelines for households regarding functionality and published HDTV guides do not apply in the same way in hotels.

TV sets for hotel use

Hotels should use TV receivers designed specifically for hotel use rather than consumer devices. TVs intended for hotel use prevent guests from altering settings such as tuning channels, changing language menus, or adjusting other configurations that could cause issues for the next guest.

Another problem could arise if a guest leaves their user credentials saved for paid streaming services or channels, allowing the next guest to access them and potentially cause financial harm to the previous guest.

As the number of channels will increase in the near future, and frequent channel adjustments will be required, hotel-specific TVs can utilize a lightweight system through which all the TVs in the rooms can be tuned at once. In hotels without such a system, settings can be copied using a USB stick. In consumer devices, each room must be visited individually, and all tuning settings must be programmed from scratch, with the risk that the guest could still change the settings.

Added value and savings with a Hotel TV system

When hotels have purpose-specific TVs managed by a system, they can add many cost-saving functionalities. For example, in some cases, hotels can offer Wi-Fi connections to guests through the hotel TV and its system.

Actions and considerations

Actions should be taken well in advance of spring 2025, when TVs will go dark unless they have the necessary T2 tuner, and the antenna centre is correctly configured:

1. Determine the type of TV broadcasting used: Is the hotel using terrestrial television broadcasts or cable television broadcasts? Hotels using cable TV are not affected by this change.
2. Check the T2 tuner compatibility: Do the TV receivers in the rooms have the necessary T2 tuner, or do they only have the older T tuner, which will no longer work from spring 2025?
3. Estimate the scope of required upgrades: How many rooms need new TVs? The number of rooms requiring updates in Finnish hotels is significant.
4. Determine necessary actions for the hotel: Do the TVs need to be replaced or can they just be re-tuned? Can the antenna centre be reprogrammed or does it have to be replaced?
5. Cost allocation: Which costs are the responsibility of the hotel, and which are the property owner's responsibility?

Required actions

In households, TVs will automatically tune themselves, but in some hotels, actions are needed to tune the TVs. In many Finnish hotels actions will need to be taken, but the current challenge is understanding what needs to be done, where, and to what extent.

Changes will often also be needed in the antenna centre and/or on the network level. HDTV broadcasts are more demanding/sensitive regarding antenna signals, so it is advisable to check the signal quality well in advance by measuring and verifying the network’s condition and suitability for future HDTV reception.

If necessary, we provide hotels with antenna and network condition assessments, installations, measurements, and information on the changes required for the HDTV transition.