Slovakia set for DVB-T2 move

Slovakia’s fourth DTT multiplex will start the switch to DVB-T2 on June 28.

Speaking to Zive, Zsolt Nagy, the technical director of the national transmission company Towercom, said that viewers would begin to see changes on their screens from the beginning of September.

The fourth multiplex carries the pay-DTT service Plustelka and Nagy added that none of its channels were likely to be dropped following the transition.

Indeed, new ones, some in HD, may be added as the multiplex’s capacity is increased from 22 Mbps to 36 Mbps.

Nagy also said that as most viewers will have to replace their set-top boxes to continue receiving Plustelka, Towercom has prepared a special offer providing one at a discounted price.

The fourth multiplex currently covers around 80% of Slovakia and Nagy also said he expected to cost of receiving the basic Plustelka package to remain unchanged at €5.99 a month.

There are at present no plans to move the country’s other multiplexes to DVB-T2.

Significantly, Markiza TV, Slovakia’s leading broadcaster, has a DVB-T distribution contract valid until the end of this year. At this stage it remains to be seen if it will be extended.

Only around 10% of Slovak households use DTT as the their main source of TV reception.

DVB-T2 to launch in Germany on May 31

The German DVB-T2 roll-out will commence on May 31, 2016 with a multiplex carrying six public and commercial TV channels in urban areas.

The bouquet will contain Das Erste HD, ZDF HD, RTL HD, Sat.1 HD, ProSieben HD and VOX HD. This was agreed by the participating TV broadcasters with the media authorities and transmitter network and platform operator Media Broadcast as part of the transition scenario for the deployment of DVB-T2 in Germany.

The areas served in the first stage (see map) will be Bremen/Unterweser, Hamburg/Lübeck, Kiel, Rostock, Schwerin, Hannover/Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Berlin/Potsdam, Jena, Leipzig/Halle, Düsseldorf/Rhine/Ruhr, Cologne/Bonn/Aachen, Rhine/Main, Saarbrucken, Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Munich/Southern Bavaria.

The regular service offering around 40 channels – mainly in HD quality – will start in Q1 2017 in the urban areas covered by the initial broadcasts and in further urban areas. The distribution of the commercial channels in the previously used DVB-T standard will be terminated at the same time.

The public channels will continue to broadcast unencrypted following the transition to DVB-T2. To access most commercial channels in HD quality, viewers will have to pay a subscription fee. The commercial channels will be accessible free of charge until spring 2017, but encrypted from day one. The nationwide changeover to DVB-T2 is scheduled to be completed in mid-2019.

For reception, TV sets or set-top-boxes compliant with DVB-T2/HEVC will be required. They are branded with a green DVB-T2 HDlogo (pictured) for consumer guidance. The participating parties want to determine further details regarding the transition in the next weeks.

Malawi goes digital with DVB-T2

Following the analogue switch off being implemented in phases in Malawi, the government launched the Malawi Digital Television at Mzuzu on April 23.

The government through the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Civic Education is encouraging all television viewers to acquire the Malawi Digital Television DVB-T2 decoder also known as Kiliye Kiliye. In order to promote sales of the digital receivers, prices of the set-top boxes have been slashed from K15,000 to K13,500 (around EUR21).

Analogue switch-off will be completed on June 30, 2016, after which date only digital broadcasts will be available to viewers in the country. Malawi is the fifth country on the African continent to complete digital switch-over, the others being Mauritius, Tanzania, Namibia and Mozambique.

There is a total of 18 channels available including Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Luso, God News Broadcasting Services (GBS), Timveni, Luntha, Channel for All Africa (CAN), Calvary (CFC), Times, Hope, Zodiak, Joy, Matindi, Ufulu, Beta, Ufulu, Angaliba, African Bible College (ABC) and Laura Televisions.

Change in Czech DVB-T2 plan

The Czech Republic’s roadmap for the transition to DVB-T2 has become a little clearer.

Digizone reports that the expert group from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for Development and Strategy has, after a month’s delay, submitted a document on what will eventually form a technical plan for the transition. The delay was requested by network and mobile operators, along with broadcasters, for them to submit further commenst, wone of which the expert group has incorporated in its document.

The most fundamental change proposed for the technical plan is that there should be three, rather than two, DVB-T2 transition multiplexes to begin operating from this year until the process is completed in 2021. It would be regional and operated by Digital Broadcasting, which already operates the country’s fourh multiplex.

The two other multiplexes would, as planned, be technically operated by the national transmission company CRa and allocated to the public broadcaster CT and regional stations.

The Netherlands to introduce DVB-T2

The Dutch government is planning to introduce DVB-T2 when the current licences run out at the end of January, 2017.

The 700 MHz frequency spectrum will become available for mobile use from 2020. The government will auction both the 694-790 MHz spectrum as well as the DVB-T2 licence. There will be a period of simulcasting in order to facilitate the switch from DVB-T to DVB-T2.

During the past few months, the Ministry of Economic Affairs held a number of consultations with interested parties. Henk Kamp, the responsible minister, has now send a letter to Parliament outlining the intentions of the government.

Given the fact that still between 300 and 400,000 homes are still dependent on terrestrial reception, DTT will continue to be available in the country.

The Dutch public broadcaster NPO has said that it intend to broadcast its channels in HD over DTT as well as use HbbTV for catch-up and other on-demand programming.

KPN has also said it intend to continue to offer its DTT platform Digitenne.

At the moment, all digital terrestrial broadcasters in the country are using DVB-T. The Dutch public broadcaster transmits its main national channels NPO1, NPO2 and NPO3 free-to-air, as well as the regional public channels.

KPN owns and operates the Digitenne platform as pay-TV service, offering most Dutch private channels as well as a number of international channels including Belgian public broadcaster VRT.

Russian DVB-T2 coup for DataMiner

The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS) has chosen DataMiner to manage its DVB-T2 network.

The network, reaching over 120 million people, consists of more than 5,000 digital transmitter sites and 70 regional headends, and DataMiner is integrated with over 4,000 devices from almost 500 different vendors.

Commenting on the deployment, Victor Pinchuk, first deputy general director at RTRS, said “The multi-vendor DataMiner network management and operational support system has been instrumental to our procurement strategy, since we needed an end-to-end network management solution to manage and operate the network irrespective of vendor or device type in the network. DataMiner is the only solution on the market that does the job today and guarantees our freedom to deploy just about any technology in our network in the future”.

Ben Vandenberghe, CEO at Skyline Communications, added: “The RTRS network really benefits from the DataMiner system architecture, as it can be scaled to manage and operate both small networks and the world’s largest network infrastructures. The multi-vendor nature of our system allows RTRS to deploy the best suited equipment today and in the future”.

AMT Group will be acting as a system integrator of the project. Its CEO Alexander Goltsov said that it would be using the latest product version, DataMiner 9.0, which will be installed for the first time in Russia.

As previously reported in Broadband TV News, Russia completed the transition to DVB-T2 in January this year.

Slovakia edges to DVB-T2

The Slovak national transmission company Towercom is likely to begin DVB-T2 commercial broadcasting next year.

Zive reports that this is later than the company had originally planned.

Quoting Michal Suran, Towercom’s marketing manager, it adds that the transition will be gradual rather than undertaken in a single leap.

Towercom operates all the national multiplexes in Slovakia and initially planned to switch the fourth one to DVB-T2.

The company now expects to use different formats on the multiplex, namely HEVC and MPEG-4, or all MPEG-4 or HEVC.

Its response will be based on market conditions.

DVB-T2/HEVC trial to kick off in Cologne/Bonn

WDR, the affiliate of German public broadcaster ARD serving federal state North-Rhine Westphalia, and German transmitter network operator Media Broadcast will commence their joint DVB-T2/HEVC trial in North-Rhine Westphalia on August 18, 2015.

WDR will transmit a multiplex on DTT channel 40 offering free-to-air public channels while Media Broadcast will use DTT channel 43 to broadcast a multiplex carrying commercial channels.

Transmissions will take place from the transmitter site Venusberg near Bonn (WDR) and from the Colonius transmitter site in Cologne (Media Broadcast) as a single frequency network with 20kW each.

The trial is set up to test the whole signal chain from the transmitter to the reception device. It will enable manufacturers of broadcast technology and manufacturers and importers of reception devices to develop and test suitable devices.

All standard usage forms will be tested from stationary reception to portable and mobile reception. Hybrid reception devices for DVB-T2 and internet offerings will also be tested. Compatible receivers carry the logo DVB-T2 HD; current DVB-T receivers are not suitable.

Technical trials for the new DVB-T2/HEVC network which will enable HD channels on DTT in Germany for the first time are also carried out in Munich and Berlin. The first regular TV channels in the new standard will be broadcast from June 2016 in large urban areas – in time for the European Football Championship.

Romania starts DVB-T2 tests

The Romanian national transmission company Radiocom has begun DVB-T2 tests in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Timisoara.

In doing so, it is employing some of the equipment that was used to transmit the public broadcaster’s second channel TVR2 in the UHF band. Currently, there is an ongoing tender for new equipment.

Radiocom is also continuing to broadcast the first public channel TVR1 in analogue in VHF until the end of next year to maintain continuity for the Romanian population despite ASO having taken place on June 17.

The first of Romania’s three national multiplexes (MUX-1) will employ DVB-T2 and reach 90% of the population, with all transmitters being in place by the end of 2016. It will be FTA and contain public and commercial TV channels.

The second and third (MUX2 and MUX4) will offering commercial TV services and up and running by May 17, 2017.

Dutch NPO looking at DVB-T2

Dutch public broadcaster NPO is looking to broadcast its free-to-air channels NPO1, 2 and 3 in HD using the DVB-T2 standard from 2017 onwards.

NPO chairman Henk Hagoort told the audience at the Mediapark Jaarcongres in Hilversum. NPO is currently broadcasting its three main national channels in DVB-T via the Dutch digital terretrial network.

Hagoort said he wants to offer more choice to the viewer and offering the NPO channels in HD quality via the DTT network will help the viewer choose between the various platforms.

At the moment, KPN is offering a limited bouquet of channels via its Digitenne subsidiary. This pay TV option is using the DVB-T standard. The current terrestrial licences, both for Digitenne and for the NPO, run out early 2017, bit the government is planning a three-year extension.

Should the Dutch public broadcasters indeed choose DVB-T2, it will make all current Digitenne and free-to-air receivers obsolete.

New Czech DVB-T2 trial starts

The Czech national transmission company CRa has begun live DVB-T2 test broadcasts employing the HEVC codec.

They involve the channels CT Sport HD, TV Nova and TV Prima and will continue until February 28, 2016, without having any effect on existing DVB-T transmissions.

Commenting on the development, Martin Gebauer, CEO of CRa, said: “The transition to broadcasting in the DVB-T2 standard is a prerequisite for the future development of domestic television broadcasting, which enables transmissions in HD quality and the connection of TV broadcasting with internet services. The question is not whether it will happen, but when and how the transition will be carried out. Therefore we want to be best prepared”.

Serbia completes DVB-T2 rollout

Serbia’s national broadcasting agency ETV has completed the third and final phase of its transition to DVB-T2.

In the process, which began back in 2010, Rohde & Schwarz has supplied the agency with high and medium power transmitters, as well as gap fillers.

It also saw ETV chose a consortium consisting of Rohde & Schwarz Austria, Kathrein and Comutel to set up three new multiplexers.

Serbia’s transition to DVB-T2, reaching 98% of households, is due to be completed this June.

German Cartel Office approves DVB-T2 encryption

The Bundeskartellamt in Bonn

The Federal German Cartel Office Bundeskartellamt has given the green light to the plans by transmitter network operator Media Broadcast to set up a subscription-based DTT platform for commercial TV channels as part of the transition from broadcast standard DVB-T to successor DVB-T2, arguing that it would not limit competition.

“The business relationship between such a platform operator and the broadcast groups has to be created in compliance with the cartel law. In separate negotiations with the commercial broadcasters, Media Broadcast has worked out individual contracts for the fee-based provision of the channels. In this respect, there has been no act limiting competition,” Andreas Mundt, president of the Cartel Office, said in Bonn.

The DVB-T2 platform for which Media Broadcast has been selected as the operator by the media authorities will contain HD channels from the two major commercial broadcast groups RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 as well as further commercial channels in SD and HD quality. The encrypted channels will be offered to consumers for a subscription fee. The public broadcasters’ channels will, however, continue to be provided unencrypted and free of charge.

The creation of a fee-based platform has been an autonomous corporate decision by Media Broadcast, according to the Cartel Office. The authority explains that, according to its conclusions, the participating broadcasters have autonomously and independently from each other determined whether they will provide their channels to Media Broadcast for distribution on the platform and individually set the conditions.

The Cartel Office, thus, judges this case different from the dispute regarding the encryption of the SD channels on cable, satellite and IPTV in which the authority imposed a total fine of €55 million against RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 for anticompetitive agreements.

DVB-T2 first for Czech Republic

Ceske Radiokomunikace (CRa) has become the first company in Central Europe to undertake DVB-T2 tests with the new HEVC compression codec.

According to Michal Bures, who is heading up the Ultra HD trial for the Czech transmission company, they already show that it is possible to achieve savings compared to the current bitstream using MPEG-2.

This means that in future it will be possible to three TV channels in Ultra HD or 10 in HD on one DVB-T2 multiplex.

In the case of SD, it will be possible to distribute up to 40 channels, compared to the eight currently via a DVB-T MPEG-2 multiplex.

Marcel Prochazka, director of regulation and strategy at CRa, added that the migration to DVB-T2 with HEVC will enable the development of entirely new types of services for TV viewers.

Besides increasing the number of channels in higher quality, it will allow for mobile TV reception and the interconnection of TV with internet services.

It is assumed that DVB-T and DVB-T2 will operate in parallel with each other for several years, and negotiations as to when DVB-T2 can be introduced are currently being undertaken with the Czech Telecom Office (CTU).

The DVB-T2 tests are being undertaken with the support of Sony.

Slovakia takes to terrestrial TV

DVB-T services are growing in popularity in Slovakia and now received in almost a third of households.

Quoting research produced over the course of a year by GfK,Digizone reports that 30% of households, with people aged 15-79, watch DTT services.

The greatest concentration of viewers is found in towns with 20,000-50,000 and 50,000-100,000 inhabitants, at 39% and 38% of the population respectively.

There are several reasons why this may be the case. The first is the introduction of a so-called service charge by the M7-owned DTH platforms Skylink and CS Link.

Secondly, an increasing number of channels, including Wau, RA3 and Slovak Sport 3, are now available to Slovak viewers free of charge on what are three FTA multiplexes.

The fourth multiplex is meanwhile used by Plustelka, Slovakia’s pay-DTT service.