On December 20 there is an intermediate stage in the transition to the new digital terrestrial TV system but there is a risk of getting there without incentives for the new devices. The funds managed by the former Ministry of Economic Development (now the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy) are exhausted and a possible refinancing is at stake, which in any case will hardly see the light before the budget law that will come into effect. effective at the beginning of 2023.
According to the technical estimates discussed by the ministry, it would take about 100 million to be included in the maneuver. To date, the funds already used – for the replacement of televisions through scrapping or for the purchase of decoders adapted to the new system – amount to just over 315 million euros.
There remains a partial availability for the funds to the mountain municipalities that must adapt the systems and for the free home delivery of a decoder compatible with the elderly with low income, the result of a Mise-Poste agreement that does not seem to take off.
The resource node and the reorganization of frequencies
The assessments on the resources to be allocated are intertwined with those on the complex technological transition. In summary, after a very complicated journey in mid-2022, the Ministry of Development managed to complete the reorganization of television frequencies for the liberation of the 700 megahertz band, to which the process of transition to the new digital terrestrial is connected.
On 20 December – as announced a month ago by the Ministry of Development and by the operators represented by Confindustria radio-TV – there will be the complete disposal of the MPEG-2 encoding and, from the following day, the entire programming of digital terrestrial TV will be broadcast. only in MPEG-4, thus including national channels which are still broadcast on at this time standard definition.