WDIV-TV signed on its digital high-definition signal on UHF 45 on March 1, 1999. The station shut down its analog signal over VHF channel 4 on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 45. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4.