Portugal to get four new DTT channels
July 13, 2016
Portugal’s Council of Ministers has adopted a decision to introduce four new DTT channels, two public and two private. According to Culture Minister, Luís Castro Mendes, two of the channels will be the responsibility of public broadcaster RTP, namely RTP3 and RTP Memoria, while the other two will be shared by commercial broadcasters, after a tender to be launched soon.
The solution to accommodate these new channels was developed by Portugal Telecom and is based on the use of the latest technology, which allows decoding the signal in order to preserve their quality”, explained Castro Mendes.
The minister reiterated that “this measure does not represent additional costs to the state budget”, adding that he expects that RTP3 and RTP Memoria will be available on DTT by the end of summer.
Portugal’s National Communications Authority (Anacom) acknowledged and welcomed this solution, saying that it “allows for greater optimisation of existing capacity”. Previously, the regulator had stated that there is only capacity for three new DTT channels, pointing out that additional multiplexes could be added with pay-TV channels.
Currently, around 2.5 million Portuguese receive TV only via DTT, with access to five TV channels (RTP1, RTP2, SIC, TVI and Canal Parlamento).