RTL Deutschland has said it will terminate the DVB-T broadcasts of RTL, Vox, RTL II and Super RTL in the German city of Nuremberg on November 1, 2010.
The broadcaster took advantage of a special clause in its distribution contract allowing them to get out of its commitment when a frequency change will take place. In order to make room for mobile LTE services, the frequencies allocated to DVB-T will be reshuffled. The broadcaster added that it does not want to invest in a distribution media if there is no clear positioning of DTT by policy makers, resulting in an unsure future for terrestrial broadcasting.
At the moment, RTL broadcasts its four channels in a number of urban areas, including Berlin/Brandenburg, Northern Germany, Nordrhine-Westphalia, Rhein/Main, Munich, Stuttgart and Halle/Leipzig. Although the current decision only involves the city of Nuremberg, it could also apply in these other regions when a frequency change is mandated.
The Bayerischen Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM), the media authority of the state of Bavaria, has said it a statement that it regrets RTL’s decision, especially since now the local Nuremberg window of the channel will no longer be available on a terrestrial frequency. The BLM will now advertise the vacated spectrum.
