Italy

[IT] New National Frequency Plan

IRIS 1998-10:1/19

Emanuela Poli

Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (AGCOM)

On 30 October 1998 the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Communicazioni (the Independent Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Media) issued the new national frequency plan. The plan identifies 17 national networks, 11 of which are reserved for national television and 6 for local television. These 17 networks cover 80 % of the national territory and 92 % of the population, transmitting from a total of 487 sites across the country (fewer compared to the actual 600). The inspiring principle is to rationalise the location of the sites: the plan calls for the building of a number of new sites, which will be shared by all broadcasters serving the same area, and for the dismantling of a number of existing sites in order to reduce the electromagnetic pollution. Four channels have been reserved to digital terrestrial broadcasting and one to digital radio broadcasting.

The implementation of the plan will require a period of some months - between 18 and 30 - which will be agreed upon by the Autorità under the terms of the regulation concerning license application procedures which will be released by the end of November 1998. The Italian Ministry of Communication is due to assign the new licenses by the end of January 1999. Considering that 11 channels are reserved to national broadcasting and that, according to Law 249/97 regulating the TV and T1c sectors, each operator can control no more than "20 % of available resources", this implies that a single operator will not be allowed to own more than two national channels. As a consequence Mediaset, which currently controls three national networks, may be forced to transfer one of them to satellite.