Broadcasting Minister Craig Foss says South Island residents have just seven days left to ensure they can keep watching television.

Almost 150,000 homes won’t be able to watch television unless they go digital by the end of the year, according to new research.

Canterbury will switch over to a digital TV signal on 28 April.

Hawke’s Bay and the West Cost of the South Island have led the way in the switch to digital TV and the vast majority of the rest of the country is ready to follow suit.

The Shopping Channel, New Zealand’s first and only dedicated retailing TV channel, will open for business tonight, broadcasting live from 7.00pm, on Channel 18 on both Freeview and Sky TV.

September 30, 2012 will mark a milestone in New Zealand television history with the switching off of the analogue TV signal in Hawke’s Bay and on the West Coast.

In the early hours of this morning the analogue television signal in Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast was switched off and both regions have gone digital.

Information on channel changes as follows:

Transmission of TVNZ 7 will cease at midnight on the evening of Saturday June 30.

The number of households with Freeview has increased significantly over the last four months, according to the latest figures.

MediaWorks, the company behind TV3, will launch its first Freeview channel in March.

The format will be a "+1" channel which provides all of TV3's content on a one-hour delayed basis.