TVN, Polsat and Telewizja Puls began to strive for a delay in changing the digital terrestrial television standard after the president of the Office of Electronic Communications initiated a procedure that will allow Telewizja Polska to broadcast main channels in the old DVB-T standard by the end of 2023. In connection with the war in Ukraine, it was requested by the minister of internal affairs and administration. The same MUX-3, where they broadcast, among others TVP1, TVP2, TVP Info and TVP Sport will also be available on old TV sets and tuners. By the end of June, all multiplexes with major commercial stations (MUX-1, MUX-2 and MUX-4) will switch to DVB-T2 / HEVC and will not be available for viewing on older equipment.
Commercial broadcasters speak of unequal treatment. They are afraid of losing viewers and advertising revenues to TVP. The president of the OMD media house, Jakub Bierzyński, in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl, calculated that losses could reach up to hundreds of millions of zlotys. Previously, the head of TV Puls He announced that his station would demand compensation because TVP’s position was privileged. UKE explains that MUX-3 digital terrestrial television is associated with the Regional Warning System (RSO), therefore there is a reason that due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it will not change the standard According to the data of the National Media Institute, 1.7 million households do not is DVB-T2 / HEVC ready. It could be up to 3-4 million potential viewers.
Commercial stations divided?
A week ago, it seemed that the compromise between UKE and private broadcasters was getting closer. Various variants were involved. For example, the broadcast of commercial stations in DVB-T as part of MUX-4 digital terrestrial television, on which Polsat expires the TV Mobilna package or the extension of broadcast in selected parts of the country in the old standard until the end of June this year.
– The works are in progress, no binding decisions have been made – informs Wirtualnemedia.pl Witold Tomaszewski, acting spokesman for UKE. The next meeting is scheduled for the end of the week. – The talks are ongoing and the next meeting is scheduled for next Friday – says Wirtualnemedia.pl Barbara Uklańska, project manager at the Polish Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications. It is this organization that conducts talks on behalf of commercial stations. KIGEiT, which talks to UKE, includes not only TVN, Polsat, TV Puls, but also TVP, which has a completely different position. In order for an agreement to be reached, all channels available on the multiplexes in question must agree, including TV Trwam and Antena HD, which are not participating in the talks. The owner of the MWE Group, Michał Winnicki, recently proposed to switch to DVB-T2, but without the HEVC codec.
– Commercial stations are split. Each of them looks at this problem a bit differently and proposes slightly different solutions. So far they have not submitted any application and the time is running out. UKE must have it to make booking decisions, and Emitel needs it to prepare changes to the transmitter network. Monday’s change of the standard in north-western Poland could not be delayed. The senders themselves admit that a delay of a few weeks for only one stage is somewhat pointless, the person who knows the conversations reveals. A representative of commercial stations has a different opinion. – Polsat, TVN and TV Puls have similar positions. We do not see the will to reach an agreement on the part of UKE. It’s hard to say that we are getting close to a compromise – he convinces.
Viewers without commercial stations quickly replace equipment
The nearly one month postponement to DVB-T2 / HEVC in southern Poland that is at stake would only be a temporary solution to the problem. It could also increase the confusion related to the amendment to the standard. Its schedule has been known for several months and communicated in many social campaigns. Many Internet users also criticize the possible delay in the start of broadcasting channels, incl. TVN and Polsat in high definition (HD). The DVB-T2 / HEVC standard will improve the picture and sound quality and increase the number of available channels.
At the next meeting, broadcasters and UKE will see, among others with the results of the Nielsen panel. As the website Wirtualnemedia.pl unofficially learned on April 19, i.e. just over 3 weeks from the change of the standard in the Lubuskie and Dolnośląskie voivodeships, as much as 85 percent. terrestrial recipients had TV sets or set-top boxes with DVB-T2 / HEVC. Before the change of the standard, it was only 65 percent. The drops in the viewership of commercial stations were to be only temporary. Channels from MUX-8 also gained temporarily, which did not switch to DVB-T2 / HEVC (Nowa TV, Wp, Zoom TV, Metro, TVP Kultura HD, TVP Female).
Thus, the loss of signal from commercial stations led to an increase of 20 percentage points in households ready for the new standard. We recently reported that 68,000 applications have already been submitted. applications for funding for the purchase of a TV or tuner under the government program. It is also worth noting that viewers from regions that switch to DVB-T2 / HEVC with old TV sets not only lose access to TVN and Polsat, but also TV Trwam. This may have a motivating effect on some of the older DTT viewers.
Sales of TV sets and set-top boxes increased several times
The head of MediaMarkt confirms great interest in equipment supporting DVB-T2 / HEVC. – For many weeks we have been observing an increased interest in TV sets and set-top boxes, which is undoubtedly related to the change in the standard of digital terrestrial television. In the last two weeks of March, i.e. just before switching the signal to the new DVB-T2 standard in the Dolnośląskie and Lubuskie voivodeships, their sales increased several times. Customers were buying set-top boxes much more often, and when choosing a TV set, receivers up to 43 “were the most popular. From mid-April, we have also seen an increase in sales in the regions entering the second stage of signal switching – says Onur Dogay, Managing Director of Commercial Affairs, to Wirtualnemedia.pl MediaMarktSaturn Poland.
According to the manager, you don’t have to spend huge sums to replace the equipment. – The cheapest TV set costs about PLN 1000, we will buy the cheapest set-top box for about PLN 100. In March (since the launch of the government subsidy program), over a thousand people who bought a set-top box or a TV set used the TV + voucher in our stores, says Dogay.
TVP Info is the leader in DVB-T in March
The new leader in viewership among digital terrestrial television viewers in March this year. in the 4+ group there was TVP Infoand in 16-49, Polsat was invariably first. TVP Dokument had the greatest growth, and Zoom TV lost the most – according to the Wirtualnemedia.pl report.
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