I have been writing on Digital Terrestrial Television, in Turkish , for a while. I have been blogging since 2004 and have posted more then 1200, 80+ are on DTT. It seems that I have to keep posting. This time I will try something different. I will post in English. Hope this post will help the progress of DTT.  FTA Satellite is the market leader First of all I want to discuss about the need of DTT. Because as the DTT progress fails, people had to choose other ways of TV reception, mainly DTH satellite. Nowadays if you ignore the presence of digital cable and IPTV, which of both add up just 10%, people in Turkey are watching the TV signal which they receive over satellite. As I have posted on previously the FTA is another dominant of the TV market in Turkey. PayTV is just 27%, if we take the total number of houses as 20M, which may be more than 20M. People tend to think this FTA offers will last forever. So they believe that there is no need to build a new DTT network, which w...

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. ...

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...

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...

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.

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...