The Government will open a public consultation on the second digital dividend

The Vice President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría in the opening of the annual day of the Union of Commercial Televisions (Uteca) announces that in a few days a public consultation will open between agents of the sector on this new digital migration.

The Union of Commercial Televisions in open (Uteca) This annual day celebrated on Tuesday 2020 and beyond. As tradition is already the Vice President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría in charge of opening this day held at the Official College of Architects in Madrid coinciding with World Television Day.

Sáenz de Santamaría announced that before the end of November, the government will open a round of consultations with the agents of the sector for the implementation of the second digital dividend. This consultation will serve to elaborate the action plan that must be ready in June 2018 for the Blackout initially planned for 2020. This second digital dividend will involve a new channel reorganization that goes through the release of the 700MHz band of the radio spectrum in favor of the 5G mobile services. A process similar to the one that was lived when the 800 MHz band was released to give way to the 4G networks.

In his opinion, this new digital transition must "guarantee the television offer with the minimum impact on citizens and the sector." Precisely the cost of this transition is one of the key issues since the European Commission figure in 890 million the cost of adapting the TDT networks although 11,000 million from the frequency auctions that are awarded to telecommunications operators could be raised.

New platforms

In addition to the second dividend, another of the issues that went up to the day is the impact that the new digital content distribution platforms such as Netflix, HBO or Sky.

The president of Uteca, Alejandro Echevarría, demanded legislative modifications that conform to the new audiovisual reality, since in his opinion the linear traditional broadcasters “have a regulation, with an exhaustive and punctant regulatory framework, with strong obligations to the online platforms that live in a legal jungle with limited or null controls and obligations and with little contribution to the national economy”.

"It is essential that an equal foot treatment be dispensed to the different content distributors," he added. From the employer of commercial televisions they consider that regulating and supervising all will equate us in rights and obligations, but, above all, “it implies a better protection of the spectator and the recognition of the European audiovisual industry as a engine of culture and employment,” Echevarría argued.

Finally, he recalled that current legislation in audiovisual material remains to almost a decade ago being necessary to "adjust it to the new digital reality."