Advanced Television

Portugal to issue new DTT licences in 2017

November 17, 2016

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

A tender for new DTT channels will be held in Portugal during 2017, according to the country’s Minister of Culture, Luis Castro Mendes. He said that the Government has not yet formally contacted the regulating bodies about the awarding of two licences for new commercial channels on the national DTT multiplex, but will do so soon.

The two regulators in question are the National Communications Authority (Anacom) and the Media Regulatory Body (ERC).

Castro Mendes was speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of two new DTT channels (RTP 3 and RTP Memoria) public broadcaster RTP will launch on December 1st.

The launch of the new RTP channels has been criticized in the past by the country’s commercial broadcasters. In September, the CEO of Impresa group, Francisco Pedro Balsemão, went as far as to say that both SIC and TVI were considering taking legal action, which has so far not happened.

An estimated 2.5 million Portuguese receive five DTT national TV channels (RTP1, RTP2, SIC, TVI and Canal Parlamento).

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO