Spain

[ES] Government Approves an Order Regulating the Management of Digital Terrestrial TV Multiplexes

IRIS 2007-10:1/17

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

In July 2007, the Spanish Government approved a Ministerial Order to regulate certain aspects of the management of digital terrestrial TV multiplexes, and which creates and regulates a Registry of Service Information parameters for digital terrestrial TV broadcasts.

Regarding the management of the digital terrestrial TV multiplexes, the Order establishes that the entities managing these multiplexes shall be registered at the Operators Registry of the Telecommunications Market Commission. These entities shall coordinate technical aspects of digital broadcasting, shall generate the Service Information established by DVB standards, shall provide the technical means to broadcast the TV channels and the associated data, and shall be in charge of the statistical multiplexing of the signal in order to improve efficiency in the usage of the available bandwidth (provided it reaches an agreement on this issue with the digital TV broadcasters who share the multiplex).

Concerning the Registry of Service Information parameters for digital terrestrial TV broadcasts, the aim is to ensure that multiplex providers, broadcasters and DTTV services are adequately identified, so that navigation systems of TV receivers/decoders can recognise the different networks, providers and services.

For this purpose, the Telecommunications Market Commission shall create a new Registry, and shall provide Service Information parameters, which will provide data for the numbering of services. The Telecommunications Market Commission shall coordinate its activity in this field with that of the Autonomous Communities (Spanish regions), in relation to those digital terrestrial TV broadcasts which only affect an Autonomous Community.

The Ministerial Order also includes some additional provisions dealing with implementation of digital terrestrial TV services, which should substitute analogue broadcasts by 2010. At the beginning of September, the Government announced the approval of a new deployment plan for digital terrestrial TV, which has yet to be published in the Official Journal.