A program switching device and a method thereof which can prevent a disorder of images and an invisible state of the image when a channel (program) is switched. When it is instructed to switch a program to the other program in the state where the image of a program of a predetermined channel is displayed, at step SP111, the image of the program currently received is converted into a static image to mute the sound. Then, at step SP212, the receiving processing of channel is started after switching. At step SP113, the process waits until the processing of channel switching is terminated, and when it is terminated, the static image set at step SP111 and the mute are released at step SP114.