Co-financing for the costs of the digital dividend?

Although the Ministry of Industry intends to bring forward the digital dividend to January 2014, the 800 million euros committed by the previous Executive for this purpose are now up in the air.

The Ministry of Industry is studying co-financing measures to cover the re-antennation costs that communities of owners will have to incur to continue having access to audiovisual services that are affected by the digital dividend and the liberalization of the radio spectrum to develop next-generation 4G mobile telephone technologies.

According to Europa Press, the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, has indicated in his appearance this week in the Congress of Deputies that the Government has established a budget item of 45 million euros and has recently received a communication from the European Commission declaring the subsidies compatible with current regulations.

“We have launched a public consultation to evaluate the costs that communities of owners have to face to continue having access to audiovisual services that are affected by the digital dividend,” explained Calvo-Sotelo.

The Secretary of State for Telecommunications has added that, in the ongoing talks that he hopes will be completed in the coming weeks, all the agents involved have been included, from television operators to antenna operators and signal broadcasters, in order to achieve the most beneficial scheme for all within the current “budgetary limitations”.

Calvo-Sotelo has specified that, although the Government's objective is to advance the digital dividend by one year (to January 2014) due to the benefits that this would bring to the telecommunications sector and the economy as a whole, the figure of 800 million euros committed by the previous Executive "overwhelms us" at this time.