Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (Anacom) states that on 10 July Meo (Altice Portugal) informed the regulator of the need to change the timetable for the DTT migration process “due to the unavailability of one of its suppliers to provide services on the ground resonance of the emitters, due to the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal”.

In this sense, “the migration process of the DTT network, which has been suspended due to the pandemic crisis, will only be resumed on 12 August and not on 3 August, as Meo had previously proposed”, Anacom said.

“The completion of the work is now scheduled for 18 December, 2020, one week after the date set in the previously approved schedule”, the regulator adds.

The digital terrestrial television network is composed of 243 broadcasters, of which 180 have yet to migrate.

“When the process was suspended, on 13 March, 63 issuers had already been changed”, he added.

“On 12 August, when the Alter do Chão transmitter is changed, the people who receive the television signal through this transmitter will have a black television screen, at that moment it will only be necessary to tune the television or the DTT decoder and everyone will continue to watch television for free, as has been the case so far”, informs Anacom.