The news that TEO LT’s bid to buy Mikrovisatos TV has fallen through is undoubtedly a blow for the Lithuanian telco but will hopefully not have a detrimental effect on its future plans.
The introduction of DTT in Lithuania, as indeed the two other Baltic Republics, has been a far from straightforward affair. While Estonia surprised observers when the transmission company Levira entered into a partnership with the country’s leading MSO Starman to launch a platform late last year, Latvia raised even more eyebrows with the DLRTC/ Kempmayer Media Limited (KML) scandal two years earlier. Lithuania, on the other hand, held a tender for DTT frequencies in 2002 that – somewhat embarrassingly – failed to attract any interest.
Matters nevertheless got back on track in Lithuania in March 2006, when the Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) announced that Mikrovisata and Tele-3 had been awarded licences to rebroadcast 24 and five channels respectively via DTT. At the same time, a total of five broadcast companies, including Baltijos TV, Tele-3 and (automatically) publicly owned LTV, were confirmed as having the right to transmit their own programmes digitally.
TEO LT itself has played a crucial role in the process, having been awarded a licence by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) in July 2005 to construct a DTT network, though, crucially, not provide it with content. Technically, as of last summer everything was in place to start DTT transmissions in Vilnius, with a view to extending coverage to 95% of the country by 2009.
A deal of some kind between TEO LT and the licensed content providers is clearly necessary for DTT to now move ahead. The telco has recently made progress in other areas, having launched an IPTV service named Gala TV in October last year, and its task must now be either resurrect the take-over of Mikrovisatos TV if at all possible or reach another agreement with the MMDS operator. Having come so far, the introduction of DTT cannot at this stage afford to stumble. (CD)
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