A new report has predicted that Finland will become the first country to fully switch off its analogue signals.

The research, published by Informa Telecoms and Media, forecasts that Finland will be in a position to go digital-only next year, one year ahead of Sweden, Italy and Norway.

The US and Denmark are likely to make the switch in 2009, while France, Germany, Belgium and Spain will all follow in 2010.

Japan has set 2011 as the year for analogue shutdown, leaving the UK as one of the final countries - together with Australia and Austria - to complete the process in 2012.