Advanced Television

Portugal: Anacom says 2nd DTT multiplex an option

December 16, 2015

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

The chairman of Portugal’s National Communications Authority (Anacom), Fátima Barros, has admitted the possibility of activating a second DTT multiplex (so-called Mux B) to host new TV channels.

However, according to her, this would be a “political decision”. Should the project proceed, she added, it would require at least one year and an investor would have to be found, since the project would involve an investment of “several million euros”.

Barros also said that the awarding of channels on the available DTT capacity should be done “in a transparent way, on the market”.

The provision of all public service channels on DTT is one of the measures mentioned in the program of Portugal’s new left-wing government, but the issue has been a focus of conflict between the public and private TV stations.


The first DTT multiplex (Mux A) still has space for an HD channel or two channels in SD that public broadcaster RTP wants to allocate to RTP Memória and RTP Informação.

However, this proposal is being opposed by commercial broadcasters SIC and TVI who argue against the allocation of additional advertising on DTT to the pubcaster.

 

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