Channel 1 will be dropped from digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasts on Wednesday, threatens Second Broadcasting Television and Radio Authority chairman Menhashe Smira in a letter to Israel Broadcasting (IBA) director general Mordechai Sklar. Smira said that IBA has not yet switched its infrastructure to DTT broadcasts, nor has it completed the regular activity for DTT.
The DTT set-top box airs five channels: IBA Channel 1 and Channel 33, commercial channels Channel 2 and Channel 10, and the Knesset Channel 99.
IBA is due to transfer at least NIS 5 million to the Second Broadcasting Authority to carry DTT beginning in February. IBA currently pays NIS 70 million for analog broadcasting, and the switch to digital will be a significant savings.
If IBA also transfers Educational Channel 23 to Channel 33, as Smira proposes, IBA will pay even less. Smira says that Sklar has not transferred the money, even though he was a member of the DTT steering committee.
Smira says that, beginning in February, the IBA will be required to pay its debt. "So long as the contract is not signed, then regrettably, the provisions of the Second Television and Radio Authority Broadcasting Law will leave no alternative but to suspend the airing of IBA via DTT, and to seek alternatives to IBA on the system."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 25, 2010
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