HCA/HCTA – Tihany. Hungary will announce its final decision on an analogue switch off date in mid October.
Speaking in a panel discussion on digitisation,Gábor Mátrai, the VP of the National Media and Telecommunications Authority (NMHH), said that there are at present two official deadlines, namely the end of next year and end of 2014.
The situation is made complicated by the fact that the analogue licences held by the two leading national commercial stations RTL Klub and TV2 expire in mid-2012.
As a result, the NMHH is considering the possibility of a two-stage analogue switch off, namely one for commercial and another for public TV services.
Mátrai also hinted at the possibility of subsidies being made available for not only terrestrial TV viewers.
At present, around 16% of homes in Hungary are still receiving analogue terrestrial services, though the figure is continuing to fall.
Interestingly, Mátrai cited the example of Croatia, where such homes that were receiver licence fee payers received a coupon to obtain a subsidy.
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