Eutelsat incentives for Italian local broadcasters
October 25, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Eutelsat Italia has announced it will offer incentives for local broadcasters in Italy to switch from terrestrial to satellite transmissions.
According to managing director Renato Farina, the move “aims to facilitate the use of the HotBird satellite to mitigate the consequences deriving from the refarming of the 700 MHz band”.
He pointed out that the satellite platform “has the transmission capacity and adequate bandwidth not only to ensure uniform coverage of the territory, but also to relay the signal of the regional broadcasters in HD”.
The 13 degrees East orbital position is the most popular for Italian TV broadcasting, boasting more than 10 million viewers.
HD and 4K represent one of the key points of Eutelsat’s strategy for the leading national free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters. On this front, Farina expects further developments, following the increase in HDR content by Sky Italia and 4K broadcasts by FTH platform Tivùsat.
Italy is planning the switchover of DTT broadcasting to MPEG-4 by 2020, while the 700 MHz band, currently used by TV channels, will be given over for 5G.