LUSA 10/31/2024

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: DTT a 'failure' - minister Pedro Duarte

Lisbon, Oct. 30, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister of parliamentary affairs said on Wednesday that digital terrestrial television (DTT) ‘is a project that hasn't come to fruition’, as it is only used by around 2% of the population and costs €12 million per year for RTP.

Pedro Duarte was speaking at the parliamentary committee on Culture, Communication, Youth and Sport, in the context of requests from the Left Bloc (BE), PCP, PS, Chega and Livre on the Media Action Plan announced by the government.

‘History shows us that DTT is a project that didn't succeed. What we know today is that it is used by an absolutely tiny percentage, probably not even 2% of the Portuguese population,’ he said.

‘it's a brutal burden that we may have to rethink one day, as long as we ensure that everyone has access to television,’ said Pedro Duarte.

DTT ‘exists to guarantee access for all, but if we can ensure that this right is cheaper, maybe it's another fat that RTP could cut,’ not least because the state-owned group ‘spends, I believe, (...) 12 million a year’ on digital terrestrial television.

All our commercial advertising is spent on DTT, and we still need to reinforce it and, I repeat, to reach 2.4% of the Portuguese population,’ he pointed out.

Without devaluing the proportion of the population who use DTT, ‘what I'm saying is that we could probably have much more efficient and cheaper solutions,’ he said.

The end of advertising on RTP will be gradual over the next three years. In 2025 and 2026, the rate will be reduced by two minutes/hour, with an estimated total cost of €20 million and a revenue reduction of around €6.6 million per year.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

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