The conference “Taking Turkey to Digital” was organised on 28-29 May by DigiTAG (Digital Television Action Group), ITVF (Istanbul Television Festival) and RATEM (Professional Union of Broadcasting Organisations in Turkey) with the support of several European broadcasting related organizations, including EBU and DVB.
 
The first day was dedicated to DTT and presentations dealt focused on the Turkish Audio-visual context, the opportunities offered by DTT and the required conditions for a successful launch. It included presentations and participants from Turkish broadcasters (TRT, RATEM), Turkish Media Regulator (RTUK), broadcast network operator (Anten A.S.) and equipment manufacturers (Vestel). In addition DigiTAG, DVB, EBU and several European industrials (Funke, GatesAir, MainDATA, Enensys, LSTelcom, etc..) provided their views.

The DTT situation in Turkey

Turkey has not yet started DTT because of legal issues following their call for tender made two years ago (DTT was scheduled to start in November 2013). Despite a large number of candidates, exceeding the capacity available on DTT at that time, several broadcasters sued the Media Authority RTUK in court after the publication of the results and the whole process was stopped. The law has been modified since, and a new call for tender, taking into account the objections that lead to the first failure, is expected in the near future. In the meantime, DVB-T2 and HEVC became available and the question of releasing or not the 700 MHz band became more pressing.
 
Almost all Turkish speakers at the conference indicated DVB-T2/HEVC for DTT in Turkey. The synergy with the German market to create a critical mass market for the receivers is mentioned as key. Satellite has the highest market share for TV reception so the aim would be to plan for portable/mobile reception. Analogue TV has seen its market share dropping from around 20% in 2008 to 3-5% now due to the large gap in the quality and variety of offers between Analogue terrestrial TV and Satellite TV (which offers programmes in digital including HDTV).
 
The future of the 700 MHz band in Turkey is not decided yet. RTUK is investigating whether they can include it in the future call for tender or not, knowing that a license is given for 10 years, which would then push a possible release of the band to year 2025 at the earliest. On the other hand, BTK (the Information and Communication Technologies Authority) has written to RTUK requesting them to release the 700 MHz band. On the other hand, RTUK is aware of the Russian position and with it the position of some ex-USSR countries neighboring to Turkey, to keep the 700 MHz band for broadcasting, which might complicate its use for mobile in Turkey. 

The EBU intervention

The EBU intervention focused on the WRC15 issue of allocation in the band 470-694 MHz. The aim was to draw the attention of the Turkish broadcasting representatives at the conference to the ECP (European Common proposals) preparation in the CPG (Conference Preparatory Group). This latter had a meeting scheduled in the week following the Istanbul conference with a foreseen vote on the ECP with “No Change” for the allocations in the UHF sub-700 MHz band.
 
The conference was also the occasion for EBU to have informal discussions with TRT and RTUK. During these discussions, the EBU highlighted the importance for the Turkish broadcasters and Media Regulator to have their interests expressed in National preparations for CEPT and ITU groups. This requires regular coordination internally with BTK which has the mandate to represent Turkey in the international forums dealing with Spectrum, in particular in CEPT for Europe and ITU globally.
 
The RTUK’s Head of the Frequency Permits and Allocation Department Muhsin Kilic said at the end of the conference that Turkey will support “No Change” for the allocations in the 470-694 MHz at WRC15. This is definitely good news for the broadcasting community in Turkey and in Europe. It needs now to be expressed officially by BTK in the CEPT and the ITU upcoming meetings towards WRC15.
 
For more information, please contact sami@ebu.ch

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