Nicosia, Cyprus. The government is considering financial assistance for people who incurred additional costs during Cyprus’ transition to the DVB-T2 free-to-air television broadcasting standard, which disrupted signals for thousands of viewers.
Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou said in parliament on Thursday that possible subsidies could be considered in the future.
Signal disruptions and temporary restoration
Cyprus switched to the DVB-T2 broadcasting standard on July 1, but the transition left thousands of people without television signals. The disruption affected private free-to-air channels, while public broadcasters such as CyBC were not affected.
The affected channels include Sigma, which holds exclusive rights in Cyprus to broadcast the World Cup.
Earlier this month, the government reactivated the previous broadcasting platform alongside the new system. The old standard was restored temporarily for three months.
Damianou said an extension of the old platform beyond the three-month period was possible.
Technical adjustments and consumer costs
According to Damianou, technical adjustments will be made to the new DVB-T2 platform to improve signal reception.
Many owners of older television sets bought DVB-T2-compatible set-top boxes or decoders, but in many reported cases this did not resolve the issue. Authorities attributed the problems to faulty wiring or outdated antenna equipment.
Owners of compatible television sets only need to retune their channels to receive DVB-T2 coverage.
There were also reports of price gouging, with decoders normally priced at about €20 being sold for as much as €50.
