Eutelsat launches a proposal to local TV channels in Italy: to move to the satellite with the help of a series of incentives to solve the problems due to the sale of the 700 MHz band destined for 5G.
“Eutelsat is ready to put in place an incentive plan to facilitate the moving of local television channel to the Hot Bird postion in order to stem the most extreme consequences arising from the liberation of the 700 MHz band,” Eutelsat Italia CEO Renato Farina told website DDay.
“The satellite platform has transmission capacity and adequate bandwidth not only to ensure uniform coverage of the territory, but also to convey the signal of regional broadcasters in high definition. Soon there will be new developments after a season marked by the increase in HDR content transmitted by Sky and 4K content transmitted by Tivùsat, which also broadcasts the HD versions of Mediaset’s flagship channels.”
Eutelsat Hotbird already takes an important place in the Italian television landscape with both pay-TV from Sky Italia and TivùSat, the free-to-view satellite platform. Pay TV in 4K and HDR is on satellite, public TV is on satellite in HD, and Italians who have access with a satellite dish to Hotbird 13 degrees East are almost 10 million.
Local TV channels are still missing, which today differentiates satellite from DVB-T, but things may change soon. If local TVs were to switch to satellite, the satellite’s offering would be much wider and more complete than that of DVB-T.
The digital terrestrial television is in the middle of changes, with a switchover from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 from January 1, 2020, to make room for future mobile networks on the 700 MHz. band. However – to the surprise of many insiders – the Ministry has decided not to switch to DVB-T2 HEVC, but adopting the MPEG4 codec on the DVB-T transmission mode, despite the fact that the government made it compulsory for manufactures to equip all TV sets with DVB-T2 and HEVC.
