Portuguese DTT tender criticised
October 1, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
The tender for two new DTT channels in Portugal has received criticism from both public and private broadcasters.
The CEO of Grupo Impresa, owner of national commercial channel SIC, Francisco Pedro Balsemão, has described the criteria, mentioned in the Government’s announcement, as being “at least vague and at most bizarre”.
Last month, the Ministry of Culture said that that “the choice of the types of channels resulted after consideration of the current TV offer, the ability of operators to offer certain types of channels and the interest of consumers for certain content”.
Commenting on the Ministry’s claim that the increase in TV channels will ensure the “economic viability” of DTT, Balsemão said that the current price paid by broadcasters for distribution of their TV channels to DTT network operator Meo “are neither fair nor reasonable”, preventing the business from being profitable.
He also believes that it would be more appropriate to wait until 2020, when there will be a migration of DTT spectrum.
For his part, Gonçalo Reis, chairman of RTP’s board of directors, points out that Portugal is the poorest country in terms of DTT diversity and that two new TV channels (sports and news) are not enough.