Portugal to Have Fifth Generalist TV Channel

Excerpt from report by Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias website on 4 January

It is official: Portugal will have a fifth generalist free-to- air TV channel, within the framework of digital terrestrial TV (TDT) which will replace the current analogue system. The decision was taken at yesterday’s Council of Ministers meeting. The tender for this new channel should be finalized by mid-2009, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Augusto Santos Silva told Lusa [Portuguese news agency]. [Passage omitted]

The government recognizes that the TDT operation is a high-risk one. No so much for the fifth channel but for the distribution platform. Each TV set can only broadcast via TDT or cable. In Portugal TV cable distribution is very extensive and therefore represents very strong competitor for the new platform, which will have to fight back with more choice and lower prices.

RTP1, RTP2 [state TV channels], SIC and TVI [private TV channels] will automatically move to TDT. The government has allocated the remaining space on the spectrum, where the fifth channel will sit, for the existing operators, so they can broadcast in high definition.

“Analogue broadcasts will cease in 2012, which will release more space on the spectrum. That is, from 2012 it will be possible for all free-to-air generalist channels to broadcast in high definition,” Augusto Santos Silva said. Until 2012 there will be simultaneous analogue and digital broadcasting. Throughout 2007, many people voiced their opinions for and against TDT. The minister said that the resolution approved by the ministers “accommodates both sets of interests” (giving operators high definition and those interested the chance to bid for the new channel), at the same time as “adding value to the free-to-air TDT”.

Originally published by Diario de Noticias website, Lisbon, in Portuguese 4 Jan 08.

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