23/10/2003

There has been a debate about the future of digital terrestrial technology in the Italian television sector held during Eurovisioni, the international festival of cinema and TV taking place in Rome. The forum looked at current the European panorama of digital terrestrial to compare the realities in different countries.
At the moment Germany has 25 multi-channels up and running. Whereas the situation in Britain is very different, with digital terrestrial established by a rise in the BBC licence fee and a governmental obligation on the public broadcaster to carry out extensive focus group testing. Where there has been no government action, the digital terrestrial bet in the UK hasn’t been won, though this is the only country in Europe where this has happened.
The president of RAI Sat, Luigi Mattucci, believes that digital terrestrial doesn’t have the opportunity to make any inroads into the Italian duopoly. He also noted that the costs of setting up a satellite TV structure are much lower than those for digital terrestrial television. He concluded that "Technology is ready to offer up new prospects, but the success of a product will always be determined by the market".

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