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The officials’ reaction comes after the information on a possible postponement of transition appeared in the press. “There is no postponement so far. We will convene in a working group on Thursday. As I said, there are issues regarding the implementation”, the socialist Adrian Lebedinschi, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Mass-Media, said to Media Azi. The MP stated that there are problems in providing the population with set-top boxes – devices that convert the digital signal for old TV sets, which are not equipped with such devices. “If we disconnect the analog system now, about 20% of the population is left without information”, Lebedinschi added.
The MP claims that the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection should organize a new tender for the procurement of the devices. “We’re talking about the tenders. The budget for 2020 was approved. Currently, these tenders are organized. It takes time to determine the winner – it may be half a year or three months. It’s not about postponing it for a few years, but rather for several months”, Adrian Lebedinschi explained.
He does not rule out that the state could change its strategy because digital television is a thing of the past as well. The alternative would be to ensure the population’s access to information through fiber optics, by Internet. “We will see. Maybe we switch to the television via Internet and provide all the communities with Internet for this purpose. It’s cheaper, faster and the spectrum is broader”, added Lebedischi.
Sergiu Bocancea, Head of a Department at the Ministry of Economy, noted that at the first stage the institution provided the population with set-top boxes, on the basis of information provided by the Ministry of Health. “We cannot say that this is the only problem. All the converters were distributed to those who submitted the applications”, the official commented, adding that the second stage of implementation will follow. Earlier, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Vitalie Tarlev, said that technically, authorities are 95% prepared for the transition to digital television.
Ion Terguta, the former director of ‘MIR’ Moldova and the General Secretary of the Dignity and Truth Platform, thinks that there are no problems with the provision with converters because citizens purchase these devices by themselves. He believes that the problem is that citizens want to watch a greater diversity of digital TV channels, but ‘they only have access to the TV packages of the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party’. “The Socialists’ and Democrats’ TV channels are already in the multiplex, and the fact that DP gave up some analog frequencies is precisely because they relied on digital. There are economic interests and I don’t think they will give up the multiplex so quickly”, added Terguta.
Terguta also mentions about the issue of high costs for the digital signal distribution services, that independent TV channels would have to incur. He does not rule out that a possible postponement could be linked to President Igor Dodon’s desire to make the fullest use of the analog frequencies, on the eve of presidential elections. Adrian Lebedinschi rejected the accusations.
The Republic of Moldova was supposed to switch to digital terrestrial television as early as in 2015, but this deadline was postponed several times. At present, three TV channels broadcast in the analog system: Moldova 1, Primul in Moldova and TVR Moldova. At the same time, there are 7 TV channels in the national digital multiplex A : Moldova 1, TVR Moldova, Primul in Moldova, Publika TV, Canal 2, Canal 3 and Prime. In Chisinau municipality, in addition to the aforementioned TV channels, Moldova 2, Jurnal TV, TV8, CTC DIXI, Agro TV, Domashniy, N4, TV5, Noroc TV and Vocea Basarabiei TV also broadcast in digital format.
