Hungary

[HU] Consultation on Strategy for Digital Switchover Ended

IRIS 2007-1:1/21

Márk Lengyel

Körmendy-Ékes & Lengyel Consulting, Budapest

In mid-November the Prime Minister’s Office ( Miniszterelnöki Hivatal ) closed the public consultation of the Hungarian National Strategy for Digital Switchover. The strategy itself was published in early October (see IRIS 2006-10: 14) and stakeholders were invited to submit their written comments at the same time. A related public hearing was also organised as part of the consultation process.

During the consultation period the Prime Minister’s Office received 61 written contributions comprising 476 pages in total. Almost all the relevant stakeholders expressed their views. The attention paid to the strategy was particularly high among content providers and state institutions.

Many contributors reflected on the status of the multiplex operator as envisaged by the strategy that suggests the the adoption of a model of a “strong” multiplex. This solution would provide a high degree of freedom for the operator in its decisions relating to the programmes carried. This idea was welcomed in the opinions of telecoms operators and the major content providers. However, the representative of the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT) expressed the concerns of the media authority at the public hearing, and argued for the model based on a “weak” multiplex (i.e. when the multiplex operator is not allowed to decide upon the content delivered on the platform, this being a task for the regulator). Other actors emphasised the necessity of introducing legal guarantees regulating this gateway to the value chain in order to ensure fair competition.

The idea of the “basic digital package” was also the subject of several comments. According to the strategy this package should consist of the three national terrestrial television channels currently available for households in the analogue mode (one public service and two commercial channels). The document also proposed regulatory intervention with the aim of securing that this bouquet of channels will be continuously available also on all digital television platforms during the switchover. As a result viewers switching to digital would not be deprived of these programmes regarded currently as the most popular ones in Hungary. In this respect some of the stakeholders urged the regulator to re-define this “basic digital package” on the sole basis of public service.

Questions of copyright law, the activities of the collecting societies and their influence on the audiovisual sector and on the process of digital switchover were also subjects of the observations.

The contributions submitted will serve as a basis for the forthcoming finalisation of the strategy.