Monika Karas, the chair of the Hungarian regulator NMHH, and Zsolt Sárecz, the president and CEO of Antenna Hungária (AH), have signed a regulatory agreement that will allow the latter to operate a national DTT network for a further 12 years.
As AH’s current licence expires on September 5, 2020 NMHH issued a call for tenders on April 10. AH was the only bidder and awarded the licence.
Under the terms of the licence, it will be required to ensure that all public service programmes continue to be free of charge with existing receivers by operating two networks with the same technology (DVB-T MPEG-4 AVC). It will also be required to build three new technology networks (DVB-T2 HVC) for TV services, allowing for the better transmission of multiple channels.
Commenting on the development, Zsolt Sárecz said: “We are delighted to be able to run our MinDig TV subscription service and the subscription services offered through the MinDig TV Extra service for another 12 years. The introduction of state-of-the-art technology offers an opportunity to further develop our retail services and to provide our subscribers with an integrated media platform that can complement traditional digital terrestrial television with an internet-based offering”.