Bill on transfer to digital TV sent to Armenian parliament - expert

YEREVAN, December 17. /ARKA/. The bill defining the terms of transfer to digital television in Armenia has been sent to the parliament, head of the commission for freedom of speech Ashot Melikyan said at a public discussion on Armenia’s digital television challenges on Tuesday.

The Armenian government has already set the date of the transfer – June 1, 2015. According to the decision, introduction of the digital terrestrial television will be completed by then and will enable the country transferring to the single European digital TV standard.

The 2010 amendments to the law about television and radio envisaged some eighteen TV channels will complete the transfer by July 20, 2015.

Melikyan said the transfer of the existing channels will be paid for by the government, but practically nothing is mentioned about private multiplexes.

 

According to him, the legislation should be amended to clarify how new private multiplexes will be entering to the market.

The bill authors gave the respective parliament commission their proposals that provide regional TV companies a chance to have their own multiplexes, along with the ones supported by the government, the expert said. Under the current law, regional channels can be closed, he added.

“We speak about transferring to a simple licensing method. This means TV companies will be able to decide on their own how they will broadcast – through state-funded, satellite or cable multiplexes”, Melikyan said.

According to the expert, another issue that should be clarified is exactly how many socially vulnerable families need converters. It is about 130-150,000 households, according to preliminary estimates, he said. Under a government decree, some $2.5 million is to be appropriated for buying converters for 100,000 families.

The executive director of Open Society Foundations Armenia Larisa Minasyan said civil society values should be considered in discussing the transfer to digital television.

The main problem is that the transfer will not help increase the number of broadcasters and will not facilitate new approaches, but just the opposite.

There are several factors playing role in this, and the main one is that the goal of bringing the field under strict and complex control has been pursued for long time, she told ARKA.

According to her, if government subsidies cannot help all broadcast stations, then opportunities should be provided for commercial activities and private multiplexes. –0—