2013 was / is a year of travel for me. I started the year with Paris. I visited London, Krakow, Tallinn and Paris in 2013. I traveled a lot also in Turkey: Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir and Canakkale were the cities I visited in 2013.  2014 will be the year of many first times in my life.  Hope that new year brings happiness and joy for everyone. Mary Christmas and happy new year!  Hope to keep updated in PARIS...

It was a successful workshop in the sense that there were more than 160 delegates all over the Europe. Half of the delegates were from Turkey, which is understandable. As far as I remember, this was the first event of DigiTAG in Turkey. When we look at the members of DigiTAG, we see no one from Turkey. I hope that the event will be a beginning of understanding the importance of being a member of DigiTAG also.  I will write a more detailed coverage of the event. But as a first impressions, I believe these were the results of the event, regarding the DTT journey of Turkey: All parties in the DTT process, namely broadcasters, supreme council, equipment manufacturers are unhappy with the current uncertainty of the process. If we remember the last developments, supreme council has finished the tender process. There was a claim to court and court decided to suspend the licences tender for the national broadcasters. This suspend affect whole DTT process, becau...

DigiTAG, which is established to promote digital terrestrial television broadcasting, will organize a  workshop   in Istanbul on 14 and 15 November 2013 .   This event, which will take place at the Radisson Blue, is extremely important.   There are several reasons for the importance of course: When we look at the  members  of DigiTAG we see broadcasters, network operators (such as Anten AS in Turkey), manufacturers and regulatory / supervisory institutions. In short, we are talking about an organization formed by all actors of the DTT (digital terrestrial television) world. A workshop organized by this structure, will gather the most important names of the sector. Under normal conditions, the names that will not come together easily, will give presentation in Istanbul  with the call of DigiTAG. Digital terrestrial television in many countries in Europe, has become a fact of life. Analog switch off has been made by most of the...

Supreme council for Information Technologies and Communication announced new report on electronic communication sector of Turkey. There are some important numbers regarding television business also. I will try to comment on these numbers: Cable TV subscribers are 1213517. This number was 1277355 in the fşrst quarter of 2012. There are not many changes in this number. Home pass of cable tv is about 2,5 millions. Half of the potential is said to be subscripted to cable tv. Actually the number does not increase for a while.I do not know any expansion plans of the cable also. It has been argued for a while to expand the offer via OTT.  IPTV subscribers are 213695.There is only one IPTV service in Turkey, which is offered by a company of Turk Telekom, namely TTNet. I think that the number of subscribers should be more. There are surely some reasons of this, which I do not want to go deeper. May be one day, the IPTV operation in Turkey, will be researched by academics.  Number...

It was my first time in that north of Europe. First of all I should thank to Levira, for their hospitality. They were amazing. The conference, the party, the organization were all fabulous. Hope to attend their events in future.  You can find my presentation slides in this post. Below each slide I will try to write some comments, hopefully will be explanatory.   Turkey is a big country with a population above 75 millions. Free to air satellite is dominant way of TV reception. Digital terrestrial network is not built yet. Plan is to switch off the analogue terrestrial by March 2015. When we look at the numbers, it can easily be seen that number of households receiving TV through analogue terrestrial decreases steadily. Actually it was almost equal in 2006, when the first attempts for DTT started. payTV is immature in Turkey. There is a lot to do regarding payTV. Numbers are not exact. I could not find the exact numbers of subscribers...

It is surprising to learn that Court has decided to suspend the tenders for national digital terrestrial television. Supreme Council, made an announcement stating this decision. It is not yet clear what will happen next. I mean, national licensees are key point in the DTT transition process. Because the share holders of the antenna company should have the national terrestrial licensee. Another interesting point is that according to the law number 6112, RTUK can not organize a new tender for national broadcaster as in the law it is stated that all tender processes should be completed within 2 years time. What will happen next is the main question in minds. I believe that Parliament will make a change in the law and give permission to RTUK to organize an new tender. But, Parliament is closed now. So, this will take time.  Actually, whole process will take time. It was planned to start DTT broadcast in Ankara on 1'st of November. It seems that we should wait a little bit more. ...

Hope that it is interesting to read my insights about DTT in Turkey. It is my pleasure to announce that I will be presenting about DTT in Turkey at Levira's Digital Broadcasting event in Tallinn. It will be my first time in Tallinn and actually in that north part of Europe. In my presentation I will mention the important dates about DTT, which comes from the broadcasting act 6112. I will also discuss the factors which affect the success of ASO.  As you may well know that Turkey is some what late in DTT process. It may be argued that this gives Turkey an important advantage to choose DVB-T2 and start DTT directly with DVB-T2. But the TV market in Turkey is different than all other CEE countries. There are only 2 DTH Pay TV operators, one cable and one IPTV operator. Nearly 70 % of households receive TV through satellite. Cable, is not an important alternative. Hence, DTT may give the people an interesting alternative. Some argue that comparing with 1000 channels with sate...

I wrote this post in Turkish yesterday and share it on DVB-T2 group in Linkedin. I am a little bit surprised to see that some of the members of the group wanted to read it in English. That's why I will try to write some what same in English also. As you may already know that there is no DTT network in Turkey yet. I mean we will build DVB-T2 directly. First of all license tender have been made. National & regional licensees are given and local ones are in the process. There will be 11 HD & 22 SD national broadcasters. In each region , there are 7 regions in Turkey (geographically, not administratively), there will be 4 SD broadcasters and in each city (local) there will be 7 SD broadcasters. Adding TRT (public service broadcaster of Turkey) to these this will be 54 broadcaster in each city. But is this the case after the license tenders? There are 11 HD & 22 SD national broadcasters who paid (actually as a result of tender took the license for 10 years fo...

Day 2 of iTVF event hosted an important discussion: digital radio standard. There were important presentations from WorldDMB , Digital Radio Mondial e, EBU , RadioDNS and Sony . Session started with the key note speech of Mr. Taha YÜCEL, deputy chairman of Supreme Council of Radio & Television. He addressed some legal issues regarding the transition period from analogue to digital in radio broadcasting.  It may not be quite clear for some that 3G / 4 G or WiMax can not replace broadcast. Let me try to explain this a little more. Technologies of cellular phones or WiFi depends on unicast streams. Where each and every user / consumer sends a request to the server and a unique stream starts from server to the consumer. It is one - to - one type of service.  In the broadcast world however things occur differently. Service is send from the transmitter (like the server in unicast world) to the air. All consumers get the same if they are in the cov...

For more than 10 years I am attending TV Conferences in Istanbul. Name of the event was Cebit Broadcast Cable & Satellite Fair & Conference. I presented papers at this event two times in different years. By the time this event is combined with Cebit IT and conference part of the event disappeared totally. I am very glad to see that RATEM organized a special event for TV sector in Turkey. I should mention that iTVF is not just about technical part of TV. It is also an event to meet content owners with international sales firms. It can be thought as a combination of Mippcom & IBC. But of course it is just a small version of both events. At least for this year. There were two day discussions on digital TV and digital radio. It may sound unbelievable but in Turkey digital terrestrial television network is not yet constructed. In nearly all European countries DTT network is built, and again in many Analog has been switched off. We are a little bit late for both and time...

In Turkey, 3 different types of DVB-T2 licensees are given. According to the coverage of the signal these licensees are national, regional and local. National and regional licensees are given with tenders now it is time for local ones.  There are 81 cities in Turkey, 73 of which will have local DTT broadcasters after T3 (DVB-T2 Local) Licence tender . It is understood from the announcement of Supreme Council, there will be maximum 7 T3 licensees per site. When we look at the attendees of the tender we can easily see that in many sites, there are less than 7 attendees. The minimum price for a T3 licence changes from site to site. In İstanbul minimum is 300.000 TL, in Tunceli and Bayburt it is 30.000 TL. This huge difference comes from the differences in potential advertisement revenue.  In İstanbul, there are 15 attendees, 7 of which will get the licence. In Ağrı, Amasya, Artvin, Bartın, Batman, Bayburt, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Çankırı, Hakkari, Kar...

It a pleasure for me to announce the  Istanbul Forum & Fair , at 20-22 June 2013. I am mainly interested in the  Forum  of the event. It seems that although there is a short time left, program of the event is not yet finalized. I found program of day 1 & 2 in the Facebook account of the event. As you can see, it is an important event, looking at the names of the speakers. Turkey is a huge market for DVB-T2 and digital radio. Throughout Europe there are a few countries left, without DTT network at all. So main producers of DTT network equipment will come to Istanbul to show their products. Also with over 70 Million people, who watched nearly 4 hours of TV daily, TV production is important.  I, personally, try to attend the event on 20 & 21 June. I hope to meet my readers there. If you will attend the event also, you can send me a message through LinkedIn . 

If everything goes as planned I will attend Digital TV Central & Eastern Europe Event, organized by Informa, in Krakow on 25-27 June 2013. I am really excited about the event. Over The Top Dedicated Day, on 25 of June, is important. OTT, is a grey valley, between IPTV & WebTV. It is not an IPTV service as it does not use dedicated network; it is not a WebTV service as you can also watch with a box or through an APP. This grey valley is not organized in many countries with acts also. Hence, it gives the channel a great advantage. It seems that this grey valley will continue for a while but not till the end. There are some cases regarding the intellectual propriety rights. I think all these discussions will be held at the event. Hope to meet my viewers at the event. You can reach my linkedin account.

It has been quite a while that I could not find time to write. Actually, I am not used to write in English and should spend more time for it. I was very busy with things, which make me feel happy. We went to Paris and then to a village in Turkey with my family. After that, about 3 weeks later, I went to London for Connected TV World Summit .  I will definitely write a detailed coverage of the event but I should wait for the presentations. Meantime let me write my first observations: Event, was very well organized. Each and every presentation was held on time with the previously announced speakers. Attendees were well chosen, covering nearly all aspects of connected tv business, namely CE manufacturers, broadcasting companies, system integrators, OTT providers.  Only missing party was advertisement, which is discussed on an other event: Future TV Advertisement Forum. It was a pleasure to hear from Hulu and Boxee from US. Cocktail after first day of the ev...

With the recent tenders, digital terrestrial television licensees are given by Supreme Council of Radio & Television in Turkey. Infect the results of the tender is some how surprising; total revenue of Supreme Council is 820.850.000 TL, which is appr. 350.000.000 €. When we think of regional and local licensees, total amount will be nearly 1.000.000.000 TL What is the reason of this huge amount of money? Why do broadcasters agree to pay this amount for a license with which just 10 % is watching TV? What is the business plan behind this scene? These are questions in my mind. If I figure out some answers, you can be sure that I will share with you. If you have any answers, please do not hesitate to share with me, and other readers. I will appreciate your support.

With the change in technology, it seems that IPTV offers, will not need a separate set top box. Television sets becomes "smarter". Nowadays, they are not devices with just a monitor and tuner but devices with hard discs, operating systems. You can download applications to your TV, as if your tablet or phone. You can also use your phone / tablet to control your TV. Hence, TV and phone / tablet becomes more closer. On 25 of June in Krakow, Poland these issues and more will be discussed in detail at Digital TV event . If everything goes as planned, I will attend the event and hope to see you there also.

I attended to IP & TV World Forum and TV Connect events in Istanbul, which of both was organized by Informa. Having attended to these events, I am glad to say that I will have chance to follow the Digital TV Central & Eastern Europe Event on 25-27 June at Krakow, Poland.  Actually I have to thank to Informa, for their support in attending the event.  Main topics that will be covered in the event are OTT (Over The Top) TV and Pay TV. There will be a one day event dedicated to Over The Top Television. I will try to attend this event also, which will be on 25 June. In fact I think that OTT will replace classic IPTV offers, with the increase in smart tv, connected tv sales figures, need for a set top box will diminish. Therefore, this one day event is really important for the sector professionals.  When we look at the speakers of the event, one can easily understand the importance of the event. Some of the speakers are: Ian McDonough, Senior Vice Pres...

As you all know digital terrestrial television license tender in progress. I want to write on the first results of the tenders. There will be national, regional and local licenses. Results of the national general HD licenses are some what surprising. In Turkey license of satellite and cable broadcast tv and  is 210.000 TL / 10 years, the minimum price for DTT national HD general was 3.000.000 TL. After the tender the minimum price for a licence was 48.800.000 TL. It is 232 times greater then license for satellite or cable.  Another interesting thing is that in Turkey, there are just 10% or less left, receiving tv from analog terrestrial. It can be thought that DTT license is a prestigious asset, that's why this license fee is so high. Even though we think like that, I believe it is not enough to explain the gap between license fees among two types of distribution channels. We will wait and see what these results mean. Keep following my blog in order to keep informe...

First phase of DTT license tender is made today. According to the news from Anadolu Agency broadcasters who won the license for 10 years is as follows: AKS Televizyon Reklamcılık ve Filmcilik Anonim Şirketi (Show TV) Ciner Medya TV Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi (Haber Türk) D TV Haber ve Görsel Yayıncılık Anonim Şirketi (Kanal D) Huzur RadyoTV Anonim Şirketi (FOX) Işıl Televizyon Yayıncılık Anonim Şirketi (Star TV) Samanyolu Yayıncılık Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi (Samanyolu TV) Turkuvaz Aktif TV Prodüksiyon Anonim Şirketi (Turkuvaz Aktif TV) Yaşam Televizyon Yayıncılık Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi (Kanal Türk) When we look deeper to the results we see that Çukurova, Doğan, Doğuş, Samanyolu, Ciner, Turkuvaz groups has won an HD national general license.

It is a big day for Turkish Television Market. Today, first digital terrestrial television license tender will be made. Results of this tender will have great impact on the TV market. There are 15 broadcasters in today's tender for HD general national license. However there are just 8 license. Thus price for one license is expected to get higher then the minimum, which is 3000000 TL. I will write on the results as soon as it is announced. One interesting development is that there are just few comments about the tender in Turkish newspapers and columnists. I think that this silence is meaningful. To make a comment on this silence I want to wait a little and see the comments after the tender. Keep following this blog for being updated with developments in Turkish TV market...

Although nearly all countries throughout European has completed analog switch off, Turkey has not yet build Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network. First tender will be next week for licensees of national coverage. Regional and local coverage licensees will follow national. Analog terrestrial is said to continue till March 2015. In this post I will try to figure out the affects of this process on TV market in Turkey. In Turkey cable has a limited network and hence has a little market share. App. there is %8-10 of households receive tv from cable (analog + digital). There is only one cable operator, TURKSAT , which is %100 state owned and operates not only cable but also satellite. TURK TELEKOM , which was previously the telecommunication monopoly of Turkey, has IPTV offer, namely TIVIBU . TIVIBU has not yet reach an important number of customers in market but is growing rapidly. DIGITURK and DSMART are two satellite platforms both of which has also three...

I had chance to follow the Connected TV World Summit 2011 online. This year, if I can manage to, I will attend the event in London. In its program, which you can download from here , it is stated that: CE manufacturers pioneered Internet video to the TV screen, then Pay TV harnessed Connected TV apps as a way to reach their subscribers in more rooms. Now platform operators are focused on their own connected set-top boxes while broadcasters help develop the next-generation free-to-air platforms that will take Connected TV to the wider market. Every kind of platform and every kind of content provider, from the new online entrant and special interest channel to the movie portal and terrestrial broadcaster, needs a connected strategy. Like digital before it, ‘ connected’ is driving a fundamental change in the TV market that impacts everyone and everything. I totally agree with this statement. It is a fact that connected world will effect each and every part of TV business. Either y...

As you all know analog switch off (ASO) is the process of ending analog terrestrial television broadcast and start digital terrestrial television (DTT) instead through out the whole country. In many European countries this process is done. In Turkey ASO will be on 3 March 2015. DTT has not yet started and I believe that 2 years of transition period is an extremely tight target. We will wait and see if the target is reached or not. Main advantage of Turkey is that television reception depends on satellite. Total percentage of households which receive television from analog terrestrial broadcast is just 20 % or less. Thus, number of people that will be effected from ASO is not as high as the ones in other European countries.  In countries where analog terrestrial broadcast is not dominant, transition period is not so long. This will help the ASO process of Turkey.  It is stated in the law that the DTT network will be built by a firm, shortly called as Antenna A.Ş . Share ...

First of all I would like to mention that you can be sure that what you read in this blog is not copied from somewhere else. They are personally written by me. I am working as an R & D Engineer in Turkey. After graduated from electrical & electronics engineering department in 1995 I am working in television industry since 1998. I am blogging since 2004. I wrote 950+ posts , 125+ of which are technical . I am blogging in Turkish. You can read them using online translator of google, keeping in mind that online tools are not so  powerful in translating from Turkish. This is my first post in English. I hope to be a reference site for the television technology of Turkey. Television market in Turkey differs from other European countries in some aspects. For example in Turkey nearly 70 % of households receive television from satellite. Cable, digital & analog, is just 8 %. Digital terrestrial television (DTT) is not yet started. DTT is planned to start with DVB-T2. ...