Digital television: complicated

Michael Hedges April 30, 2009 Follow on Twitter

The switchover from analogue to digital television is well under way. Well, it’s mostly well under way. Complications, from nasty new economics and tattered business models to old-fashioned greed and corruption, keep holding up progress.

The European Commission mandated switchover from analogue to digital television by 2012. Member States rushed to approve enabling legislation and auctions of sufficient spectrum. Well, most did. Others – and not an insignificant group – dragged their feet, especially on legislation. Auctions are far easier to organize. And auctions bring in cash.

Last week Boxer DTT simply withdrew from its contract to provide Ireland with commercial free-to-air digital television. The plan, said the company in a statement (April 20), is “no longer viable under Boxer’s proposed business model.”  Boxer DTT is a joint venture of Ireland’s Communicorp and Sweden’s Boxer TV Access.

Media regulator Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) awarded the contract for three digital multiplexes and all that goes with them to Boxer DTT in July 2008. Boxer DTT planned to contract transmission services from public broadcaster RTE, spending ample millions. Apparently, a mutually beneficial agreement with RTE never materialized. BCI said it would turn to other bidders in hopes of meeting the 2012 deadline. RTE is already moving forward with its own DTT multiplex network.

Bulgaria’s digital switchover is stumbling under bureaucratic muddle. Last December the Bulgarian Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) approved the sale of NURTS, the broadcast services subsidiary of incumbent Bulgarian Telecom (BTC), to Austrian tower and transmitter company ORS, the intention being to bring in an experienced service provider with money to built and operate digital TV and radio multiplexes. In mid March, with Parliamentary elections set to change the political landscape, Bulgaria’s Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) said it would need four months for an in-depth look at the deal. BTC withdrew from the deal leaving ORS holding the bag, so to speak.

“We are avoiding a situation in which CRC gives ORS the license, only to have CPC block the deal,” said BTC spokesperson Pavel Velchev  to Sofia Echo (March 20). “Then we’d have to stop broadcasting everything.”

NURTS is the analogue transmission supplier for most of the country’s broadcasters, including all public radio and television channels. It would be the incumbent supplier for digital services if the deal went forward. ORS, it’s believed by government watchers, had been given reasonable assurances to that end. ORS believed it was getting a green light to develop digital re-transmission networks, which under Bulgarian law must be provided by companies not involved in broadcasting. ORS is majority owned, 60%, by Austrian pubic broadcaster ORF, Raiffeisen Bank holding the remaining 40%. That makes ORS a broadcaster in the eyes of the CRC, which had earlier approved the deal.

Being Bulgaria, charges are flying that politicians prefer a Bulgarian operator over an Austrian, several usual cronies suggested. The Public Radio Transmissions Act is said to include rather ambiguous language regarding who and what can and cannot rebroadcast signals. Unfortunately, reported Sofia Echo (April 10), the government has never released a draft publicly.

Other Central and Eastern European countries are fighting to keep to the EU deadline. Hungary’s National Communications Authority (NHH) warned service provider Antenna Hungaria (AH) (April 24) of possible penalties for falling behind DTT delivery schedules. Coverage for DVB-T and DVB-H services, said the NHH, are below contracted levels expected by November 1st. And, too, not all of the ‘must carry’ channels are available, operators being required to undertake their own systems upgrades.

Digital switchover is well under way in the Czech Republic, technically at least. Last week text messages were sent to Telefonica O2 mobile customers in Prague “warning” of the impending April 30th digital TV switchover. At the first of April a survey conducted by the agency coordinating digital switchover said 73% of Prague households had acquired digital devices.

Smaller countries on the EU borders are anxious to deliver digital television close to the European Commission deadline. Serbia’s Telecommunications Ministry announced (April 29) plans for a €100 million investment in digital TV, though the genesis of the funding remains unclear. Serbia is not an EU Member but borders Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria and hopes to make the digital switch by 2015. TeleKom Slovenia was awarded (April 26) the digital TV multiplex franchise for Macedonia.

Yes, free-to-air TV of the digital variety is running into confused consumers, wavering operators (and their investors) and politicians looking for their due. Scratching their collective heads after attractive offers from competing cable and satellite TV operators aggressively pitched, consumers are asking “Why the fuss?” Investors, operators and politicians are asking “Where’s the money?”

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