The cost of subsidising DTT receivers in Poland is likely to be in the region of PLN400-600 million (€96.8-145.3 million) rather than the PLN1 billion claimed by the country’s leading commercial broadcasters.
Speaking to Rzeczpospolita, Magdalena Gaj, the VP at the Ministry of Infrastructure, said that the former figures are based on the number of viewers currently exempt from paying receiver licence fees and receiving benefits respectively and that she had no idea how the broadcasters arrived at the latter figure.
She added that although the broadcasters are currently expected to subsidise DTT receivers, the Ministry would meet with them to discuss other possible ways of financing.
Gaj also said that a full DTT service was much more likely to be launched this autumn, as the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) still believes, rather than be delayed by up to another year, in the view of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT).