18-05-2009

Digital broadcast deal for RTL Klub

By Gyorgy Karpati
    Hungary's leading commercial TV channel RTL Klub signed an 11 year contract on digital terrestrial transmission with the Antenna Hungaria Group, the companies announced in a joint statement.

    The program of RTL Klub (www.rtlklub.hu) in SD format is readily available in the digital terrestrial television service accessible free of charge to the public as of May 8.

    Originally the two leading Hungarian commercial channels were to sign a contract about the digital terrestrial transmission with Antenna Hungaria (www.antennahungaria.hu) by December 14, 2008, but they signed only a letter of intent.

    Pursuant to the agreement the two companies resolved all outstanding issues, including claims and litigations between the parties related to the digital transition, analogue TV, and infrastructure.

    The signed contract will be in force until the end of the digital terrestrial television transmission license of Antenna Hungaria Group, September 5, 2020.

    MinDig TV service was launched on December 1, 2008, in Hungary from Budapest with almost 60% coverage of Hungarian households. The available free-to-air programs of the MiniDig TV service include RTL Klub, Duna TV, and Duna II Autonomia; encoded programs are ATV and Hungarian news-channel HirTV.