David de Jong writes: American Forces Network (AFN) will cease its analogue television broadcasts in Italy. It means that 17 transmitters - some receivable over a wide area - will stop broadcasting the American NTSC signals terrestrially in the Italian pelinsula, according to the Italian website Digital-Sat. As far as is known, the frequencies will go back to the Italian state, although Rai Way - part of public broadcaster Rai - was responsible for the maintenance.
The analogue terrestrial TV signal of AFN consists of AFN Prime Atlantic, with a mix of programming from the main US TV stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, ESPN etc) combined with special military programming. The terrestrial broadcasts are available in the areas where US/NATO-military bases are situated. US military staff will be able to continue receiving AFN programming through (PowerVu-encrypted, addressable) satellite signals and special local military cable systems on the US/NATO military bases. In total AFN broadcast 9 channels on cable & satellite.
The cessation of terrestrial broadcasts applies to the Napoli area, Aviano (Dolomites region), Livorno-Pisa, Sigonella (Sicily) and Vicenza/Venezia. Terrestrial TV broadcasts of AFN continue to exist in Germany. After the digitalisation of the (Italian) Swiss TSI 1 and the cancellation of most France 2 analogue broadcasts, hardly any foreign TV station is broadcast in analogue mode in Italy. Digitally (DVB-T), British originated BBC World and French originated La Chaine Info (LCI) are broadcast free to air nationwide in Italy, along with Chinese channel CCTV9.
