Croatia to delay DVB-T2 introduction
September 30, 2019
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
DTT network operator Odašiljači i veze (OiV) has requested a postponement of the DVB-T MPEG-2 switchoff in favour of the DVB-T2 HEVC system from May 25th 2020 to June 5th 2020.
In the request submitted to the Croatian Regulatory Agency for Network Activities (HAKOM), OiV said this was in order to avoid any problems that could occur during the transition, in view of the fact that the European Football Championship 2020 starts on June 12th and lasts until July 12th 2020.
The change concerns the M1 multiplex which broadcasts in the frequency spectrum of 470-694 MHz. At present, Croatia is using the DVB-T transmission system with MPEG-2 encoding, which does not allow the transmission of all HD TV channels.
A gradual transition to new technology is underway and the M2 multiplex at the Sljeme transmitter site was recently activated, distributing seven channels in HD (HRT 1, HRT 2, HRT 3, HRT 4, Nova TV, Doma TV and Mreza ZG).