How many citizens, viewers, users of the Public Radio and Television Service are sufficiently and adequately informed of the risk of finding themselves, starting next September, with a "black" screen on their television? In reality they are few, so few as to make the question plausible: will it be necessary to postpone the road map towards the transition to new generation digital terrestrial, DVB-T2? The hypothesis of a postponement, which would have been advanced by Confindustria to the Mise, has been circulating in the last few hours. However, within the same Confindustria milieu there are authoritative sources decidedly opposed to the idea of a postponement. "The broadcasters, the industry, the whole system - reports a senior executive - is ready to face the expected stages of the technological transition and keep the commitment of June 2022. No referral is needed while it is necessary, obligatory, that the information campaign for users be promoted and disseminated quickly and effectively". This, in essence, is the news with which to deal. Moreover, even recently, the CTO Rai, Stefano Ciccotti, reiterated it in an interview with FIRSTonline: "RAI is proceeding quickly to update its digital terrestrial networks and we will be able to strictly comply with the ministerial calendar".
The problem is, as far as is known, exactly in the calendar that the MISE is able to follow in the two main aspects. The first concerns "technical" procedures such as, for example, the completion of tenders involving local broadcasters in 18 areas yet to be assigned and the second aspect refers to the new bonus (100 Euros without ISEE limit) is preferably used for scrapping of old TVs, up to now breaded in the various competent accounting offices of which there is no certain information.
However, the question is relevant and pertinent: less than 100 days from the first real operational deadline of this transition, those who have taken advantage of the first incentive to scrap their old television (50 euros with ISEE up to 20 thousand euros), as far as known by the MISE and the Bordoni Foundation, at the end of last January there were just under 400 thousand, equal to just under 20 million used by the fund specifically allocated by the previous Budget Law. The reference context, i.e. the total national TV park, referring to over 21 million families who watch television with DTT, considering one or more televisions present in each home and second homes, is over 40 million devices. Just recently the FUB has released updated data on TV broadcast where we read that the households currently able to receive a DVB-T2 signal are over 9 million, equal to 42,4%, while those not yet equipped are over 12 million, equal to 57,6%.
It is necessary to review some fixed points: FIRSTonline has been involved in this important process for some years now. Therefore, it has been a long time since the scenario and the passages were known and punctually defined. In the meantime, the frequencies in the 700 Mhz band have been regularly purchased and the operators are ready to use them for the envisaged objectives, in particular for the development of 5G.
A fundamental passage of the whole transition "maneuver" consisted in the necessary communication to users that the Ministry should first have started in time and in the due manner, since unlike the previous transition from analogue to digital which offered an undisputed advantage in terms of signal quality and number of channels, in this case it is much more complex to sustain. But the lack of communication is not attributable only to the Ministry: Rai too should have guaranteed, by virtue of the provisions of art. 17 of the Service Contract “information to the public in each technical area during the implementation of the national roadmap for the liberation of the 700MHz band, using television and radio broadcasts and the web. This information must be provided without interruption until the activities are completed throughout the national territory".
The European Football Championship started just yesterday and the Tokyo Olympics will take place in July. What other formidable opportunities could have been used to encourage the purchase of a new television? The next appointment not to be missed will be Christmas. No more time can be wasted.
