The Korea Communications Commission announced Thursday that about 98.6 percent of all government-supported households had their TV successfully digitalized.

The KCC said in a media briefing that the nationwide digitalization operation has been going smoothly so far and the remaining 1.4 percent of all households which currently own the old analog-type TVs will be provided with satellite receivers free of charge from the government to watch digital broadcasts.

About concerns that the forcible digitalization of private property is against Constitution-entitled property rights, the KCC replied that no such concern has been arisen in a TV-affluent country such as the U.S., which has twice many TVs per household compared to Korea.

(joowonc@heraldcorp.com)