Conducted by individual nations on different schedules, this primarily involves the conversion of analogue terrestrial television broadcasting infrastructure to Digital terrestrial television (DTT), a major benefit being extra frequencies on the radio spectrum and lower broadcasting costs, as well as improved viewing qualities for consumers.

Usually during a transition, a simulcast service is operated where a broadcast is made available to viewers in both analogue and digital at the same time.

Government intervention usually involves providing some funding for broadcasters and, in some cases, monetary relief to viewers, to enable a switchover to happen by a given deadline.

In addition, governments can also have a say with the broadcasters as to what digital standard to adopt – either DVB-T, ATSC, ISDB-T, or DTMB.

Before digital television, PAL and NTSC were used for both video processing within TV stations and for broadcasting to viewers.

The standards are: The "RRC-06" agreement in Geneva (hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)) was signed by delegates from many countries, including most of Europe, Africa and Asia.

The switchover process is much easier for satellite since only changes to the earth station equipment are needed on the transmission side and consumers are already used to having a set top box/decoder.

But in countries where terrestrial is the dominant method of watching TV, like Japan, Spain or Thailand, the switchover is a big deal as it affects the majority of the population.