TVP, Poland’s public television, has been considering to build a satellite platform for at least two years. It has recently ordered the system to broadcast Direct to Home.
“Without this system it’s impossible to build a digital platform. But the order does not necessarily mean that we are building it because TVP needs the equipment anyway”, Marcin Bochenek, TVP member of the board responsible for technologies said.
Andrzej Urbanski, TVP CEO, said that at least PLN 100m (EUR 29.1m) would be spent for the platform and launching digital terrestrial services.
The new equipment lets to distribute 25 TVP channels, two others in High Definition, and 16 radio channels with an option to double this number. This is more than TVP needs today but too little for a really big platform. TVP has bought a transponder on Astra satellite and soon will order CAS.
More and more companies plan to launch satellite platforms, including Cyfrowy Polsat, Canal Plus and n platform owned by ITI. TP telecom plans the same.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.291)