Spain’s shrinking DTT platform
August 1, 2013
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spanish DTT is getting smaller following the closure of the sports TV channel Marca TV due to lack of funds to keep the channel on air. It is the first DTT channel to close down after the Supreme Court’s decision to invalid the awarding of a least 9 DTT channels.
The company has argued that the financial crisis and the uncertainty of the DTT market has driven it to close and be replaced by a teleshopping channel. The government has still to decide how to comply with the Supreme’s ruling: whether to call a public tender to award the licences and which DTT channels will be affected by the decision.
The private TV Association UTECA has urged the government to make a decision and put an end to the uncertainty the DTT market is facing at the present time. The reorganisation of the DTT map was set to take place during the summer but it seems will now happen inl the last quarter of the year – close to the January 2014 deadline for the allocation of the so-called digital dividend for the provision of 4G mobiles services.