Postponing Transition to Digital Television is an Electoral Solution

by Ion Terguta, journalist

The Republic of Moldova is about to miss the new deadline for transition to digital television. The Moldovan Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure (MEI) has asked the Government to approve a draft law to extend the transition period until March 2020. According to the suggested amendments, analogue terrestrial broadcasting licenses will be extended until the transition is over.
Here is the Ministry’s motivation:
“Broadcasters have repeatedly declared publicly that, as they are small and medium enterprises, they have not so far managed to gather or attract the funds necessary for creating regional digital terrestrial television multiplexes. At the same time, some broadcasters who obtained the licenses to use the capacities of multiplex A, which has national coverage, due to financial reasons have also asked the Broadcasting Coordinating Council to postpone the start of multiplex broadcasting until November 30, 2017. Therefore, there is a risk that, as soon as terrestrial analogue TV broadcasting ceases to function after December 31, 2017, they will have to confine themselves to broadcasting by cable TV networks, depriving their entire audiences of the programs they used to receive in the analogue format. As a result, the plurality and diversity of audiovisual products in the country will be diminished, and the population will be deprived of some sources of information. Another issue is providing disadvantaged families with access to audiovisual programs after analogue broadcasting is stopped. The program of transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television, approved by Government Decision No 240 of May 8, 2015, stipulates that such families are to be provided with free set-top boxes at the expense of the state budget. This step, however, has not been taken yet, as the necessary funds have not been identified in the state budget for 2015-2017. This draft law offers viewers and broadcasters an additional term of two years and two months to prepare efficiently to complete transition to digital television after analogue broadcasting ceases. The implementation of the above project does not require any additional expenditure from the state budget; it does not have any negative impact on entrepreneurial activity, either.”
Vitalie Boboc, deputy head of the Communications Policy Department of the MEI, said that these reasons were sufficient to postpone the deadline. Yet he could not explain why TV channels are unable to bear these expenses of switching to digital television. Moreover, the MEI did not base its decision on any research explaining the problems in broadcasting. It is certain that the MEI does not demand anything from the Government. It does not need more money; it does not need any other approach or solutions, either. All it needs is time. That’s all. Why? It’s an extremely interesting question, and answers to it are hidden in our economic and political landscape. Especially in the political one.
Only in the past six months, two TV channels went bankrupt and disappeared from the market. In early 2017, two other TV channels had a hairbreadth escape from financial problems and have not fully recovered yet. The rigorous control of the advertising and distribution markets and the total monopoly of the holdings belonging to Vlad Plahotniuc and Igor Dodon have stifled the broadcasting market and led the entire field of broadcasting to bankruptcy. These two groups absorb nearly 80 percent of the advertising market resources. Given that the TV advertising market is estimated at about EUR 9 million, it’s no wonder that Moldovan TV channels are unable to bear the expenses of EUR 6 thousand per month in order to join the national multiplex. Paradoxically, these self-explanatory arguments cannot be found in the motivation issued by the MEI. Vitalie Boboc argues that the ministry’s responsibility was a technical one, and no market study was needed to find out the true reasons for the TV channels’ incapacity to cope with this system modification. The issue of ensuring free competition on the market is not a concern of the MEI, either. Things get an anecdotal turn when this problem is approached from another angle. The lack of set-top boxes was the second issue that impeded transition to digital broadcasting. The MEI has not demanded only digital TV sets to be approved for selling on the Moldovan market, motivating it by protection of free competition. Let readers themselves comment on that; there’s one thing we should note: authorities have failed to create a free broadcasting market, so they are directly responsible for the fact that the TV channels cannot afford paying for access to the digital multiplex.
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So where does this demand for postponing transition to digital television come from? The answer is: 2018 is an election year. People do whatever they can think of to win elections in Moldova. All of us have been through this more than once...