Japan Digitizes TV Law.

The digital age is here to stay, and Japan is taking advantage of it by attempting to legislate a transition to digital TV and oust ground-based analog television broadcasting. The proposed law mandates that by 2011 everyone will be using digital televisions and the shift will start this fall.

The law is sure to make electronic retailers overjoyed, since consumers will have no choice but to buy new TVs, special tuners and VCRs. The government action is also intended to force broadcasters to adopt new technologies.

While the digital switch is taking place, analog broadcasts will continue. However, frequencies must change to avoid analog and digital interference.

By 2003, digital terrestrial broadcasts will begin in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, reaching all of Japan by 2006. Digital broadcasts will allow for more frequencies while analog, which uses more bandwidth, will be outlawed.

Benefits include more TV channels, an improved picture and TV broadcasts linked with the Internet. But there is a downside. To experience these advantages, a TV with special tuners is required. These expensive sets are almost double the price of the average analog set.

Currently, the demand for digital satellite broadcasts and digital TVs is less than expected. Sales of DTV receivers totaled 364,000 by last December. To inflame viewers' desire for DTV, the government asked Japan Broadcasting Corp. to develop programs to popularize it. Electronics retailers will begin offering digital TV sets with built-in hard drives and DVD recorders this fall.