This post was originally published Tuesday evening.

IN LESS than two hours’ time, the long-awaited (and highly publicised) switchover to digital TV will have taken place throughout Ireland.

Northern Ireland turned off its analogue transmitters at midnight – the latest region of the UK to completely abandon analogue TV broadcasts – while the Republic will follow at 10am.

RTÉ is airing a special one-off programme to mark the switchoff, with communications minister Pat Rabbitte on hand to formally knock off the old masts.

To whet the appetite – or simply to give you an idea of what the changeover itself will be like – here’s two videos showing what the switchover was like in Britain.

In London, the switchoff was done in stages – with BBC Two being cut off two weeks before the other channels in an effort to stimulate people into getting ready for the final switchover two weeks later.

Here’s the last action from BBC Two, on April 3…

(YouTube: heymystuff)

…and here’s the changeover on BBC One a fortnight later.

(YouTube: dankargo)

Here, if that wasn’t enough, is a video of five different channels being turned off in Scotland.

(YouTube: Offon tv)

Again, the big switch-off in the Republic is at 10am. Good luck.

Explainer: What is Saorview, and what do you need to do about it?

Read: It’s the end of analogue TV in Ireland – but what happens to Aertel?

Plus: 9 things we’ll miss about old-school Aertel

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