ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações has decided to release information provided by PT Comunicações (PTC) on subsidies provided to support migration to DTT in Portugal. Since PTC invoked confidentiality, this information has, until now, been withheld, but with CADA lending support to ANACOM's decision and backing disclosure, the issue has now been resolved.
ANACOM has undertaken a major effort to bring information about these subsidies to the population, and has carried out various actions with this purpose and with the aim of ensuing that the population has had maximum access to the support available: distributing six million copies of the DTT guide nationwide; holding meetings throughout the country with municipal and parish councils; and establishing a partnership with the Social Security Institute, under which 226 thousand letters were sent out to subsidy programme beneficiaries.
With the same purpose, ANACOM extended the duration of the subsidy programme three times, so that it remained in force for a period of one year following the final switch-off of analogue television. ANACOM undertook these initiatives, to ensure that the largest possible number of families might benefit from the support available.
The reimbursement programme, available to all people living in areas with satellite coverage (DTH), was set up to ensure equivalence of conditions between residents in areas with terrestrial coverage and residents in areas with satellite coverage, and will remain available until 2023. Under the programme, PTC is required to support the costs of the satellite set-top-box (47 euros per set-top-box and up to two set-top-boxes per home, for households not receiving subscription television services).
Since the subsidy and reimbursement programmes began, total support provided by PTC has exceeded 3.1 million euros (as of 26 April 2013). In total the two programmes have helped almost 57 thousand beneficiaries and reimbursements have been provided on the acquisition of 46,914 devices providing complementary DTT (satellite) reception.
Since the reimbursement program remains ongoing, the allocated amount may continue to increase.
