HCA/HCTA – Tihany. There is growing concern in Hungary’s cable industry over what have been termed ‘community channels’.
Although they will not have must-carry status, by law they will be required to reach a carriage agreement with cable operators.
Failure to do so will see the authorities step in to produce one between them. According to one industry source, this will effectively mean that cable operators representing some 1.9 million homes (half the total number of TV households in Hungary), will effectively be required to carry and pay for these channels.
Although initially three channels – Pax TV, D1 and Parlament Televizió (PTV) – have been given ‘community’ status, others may follow at a future date.
Pax TV and D1 are already up and running, while PTV will start test transmissions on December 1 and officially launch at the beginning of next year.
PTV will show a much wider range of programming than its name suggests, thanks in part to agreements with CNBC and Bloomberg.
On air for 17 hours daily, it will be distributed by Amos-3 at 4 degrees West and use Conax conditional access.
