TV platform Telly and the Czech Association of Satellite Operators (Česká asociace satelitních operátorů, ČASO) have lodged an appeal at the EU’s top court in a long-running dispute over the Czech Republic’s extension of digital terrestrial television (DTT) spectrum rights.
The pair are challenging the General Court’s 14 May 2025 ruling, which threw out their actions as inadmissible, meaning the Luxembourg court did not get as far as testing the substance of their state-aid complaint.
The radio spectrum in question is the frequencies in the 470–790 MHz band, currently used for DTT broadcasting. The Czech authorities prolonged those usage rights to 2030 for four DTT right-holders: Czech Radiokomunikace (CRa), Czech Digital Group (CDG), Digital Broadcasting and public broadcaster Česká televize. The extension was tied to the DVB-T2 migration and the wider EU-mandated 700 MHz clearance programme.
At the heart of the dispute is a European Commission decision from 15 March 2021 (State aid SA.55805) which concluded the free extension did not constitute state aid because it did not involve “State resources”. The Commission said the EU authorisation framework does not require member states to charge for spectrum rights of use, so a free extension is not automatically equivalent to foregone state revenue for state-aid purposes.
The appeal has now been registered as Case C-461/25 P, having initially been brought in July, and relates directly to the May 2025 standing dismissal (including issues around confidential material from the first-instance proceedings).
