Estonia brings forward ASO

Estonia’s Culture Ministry has brought forward the ASO date by two years to February 2010, citing the experience of other countries in making a quick and painless switch-off rather than dragging the process on for years. However, the new deadline will be reviewed in 2009 to see how the market has responded. Estonia’s year-old pay DTT service ZUUMtv has only attracted 6,500 subscribers to date and independent sales of a set-top boxes have yet to get under way due to a lack of FTA DTT channels. To make the transition to digital broadcasting more attractive, the Culture Ministry has offered TV3 and Kanal 2, Estonia’s two leading commercial broadcasters, exemption from the €1.6 million 2009 annual licence fee if they launch DTT by March 1, 2008. They are also likely to have their licences, up for renewal in 2009, extended automatically until 2015 if they switch off analogue broadcasts in 2010.