Dutch telecoms authority Agentschap Telecom has awarded the digital terrestrial licence to KPN, so it can continue to offer its Digitenne platform to homes in the Netherlands.
The current licence runs out on January 31, 2017 and the new licence will run till February 1, 2030. The new licence stipulates that the winning bidder will have to roll out a DVB-T2 service.
Agentschap Telecom granted the licence to KPN without an auction. In early June, it seemed that there was another (unnamed) party interested in joining the auction, which was due to start Monday, July 4. However, the second party withdrew and Agentschap Telecom could issue the licence immediately to KPN.
KPN currently offers three TV services in the country, its primary service is the IPTV platform KPN Interactieve TV, alongside the OTT service Play by KPN and the Digitenne bouquet on DTT.
At the moment, the Dutch public broadcasters have a DTT to broadcast the national and regional public channels as a free to air service; this situation will continue to be the case.
KPN’s Digitenne holds the licence to offer a pay DTT platform offering a selection of Dutch and international public and private channels.
