Full-fledged digital broadcasting via satellite began Friday morning across Japan, with some anxiety about rapid penetration due to technical problems.
NHK and eight commercial broadcasters launched the service, which provides high-quality pictures and sound, on 10 channels at 11 a.m.
At an opening ceremony at NHK headquarters in Tokyo, Kozo Hirabayashi, head of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, which oversees broadcasting in Japan, addressed the ceremony, saying, "Today will be a historic step for higher-level broadcasting."
In addition to regular television services, digital broadcasting allows transmission of text and other data as well as interactive services.
To watch programs, a dish antenna and a tuner or a tuner-equipped TV is required. However, with price tags on the hardware still high and the supply of tuners still limited, broadcasters expect only several hundred thousand TVs will receive the new service initially.
They hope the number will rise to 10 million sets within around three years.
Analog TV programs now available via broadcasting satellite will continue for some time, the broadcasters said. Terrestrial digital broadcasting is expected to start in around 2003.