Free-to-air digital television is available in Komárom-Esztergom county as of today: MinDig TV was launched in Tatabánya

The commercial digital terrestrial television service was launched in Komárom-Esztergom county by a ceremonial event as of today. Csaba Schmidt, Mayor of Tatabánya and Jean-Francois Fenech, Chief Executive Officer of Antenna Hungária jointly pushed the button, which launched the digital terrestrial television service from Tatabánya and Gerecse transmission sites. Antenna Hungária launches the commercial service from 14 new sites in December, the population coverage of the digital network grows up to 95%.

On December 8, 2010 Csaba Schmidt, Mayor of Tatabánya and Jean-Francois Fenech, Chief Executive Officer of Antenna Hungária jointly pushed the button, which put into operation the digital terrestrial television service in Komárom-Esztergom county. The media event was followed by a professional workshop with the participation of the representatives of the transmission company, the equipment distributors and antenna installers.

Antenna Hungária launches the commercial service from 14 new sites in December, the population coverage of the digital network grows up to 95%. Majority of Komárom-Esztergom county is covered with the digital terrestrial television service from Győr – launched previously -, Gerecse, Tatabánya and Mór sites – launched this December. The network expansion and the significant power increase at the Kabhegy site enables better conditions to receive the MinDig TV and MinDig TV Extra programs, providing enhanced reception conditions beyond the rooftop antenna method for the majority of the region.

In parallel with the network extention, MinDig TV Extra service was enlarged by HBO program as of December 1. It appears as a standalone channel and can be subscribed even with the free-to-air channels, which is a unique offer on the Hungarian market. Antenna Hungária Group launched two promotion campaigns for the Christmas season: in the frame of the MinDig TV promotion, everybody, who buys a promotional MinDig TV receiver, gets 10 additional channels for half a year. MinDig TV Extra offers a half-priced set-top-box or CA-module (HUF 9,990 and HUF 4,990 respectively) in case of a one-year subscription. AXN channel will be available time-shared with Euronews program for all of the 125,000 MInDig TV households every evening in December month without a subscription fee.

According to the very recent sales figures as of end of October, almost 10% of the Hungarian households had DVB-T MPEG-4 receiver (set-top-box, integrated TV set, PCI card or USB stick) at home. The actual usage of the MinDig TV service has exceeded 125,000 households.

The choice of MinDig TV stickered products is growing continuosly, presently 15 types of decoders and 107 types of IDTV’s are available. MinDig TV stickered recevers can be purchased in more and more shops and chains, there are more than 600 shops selling such receivers all over the country. Parallel to this, the average price of the decoders decreased by 35% compared with the last year, turning them into the ‘perfect gift’ for this Christmas.

The conversion process to the MinDig TV service is also boosted by the distribution of flat-screen TVs, as today we can hardly find LCD or plasma TV-set marketed in Hungary without a DVB-T MPEG-4 tuner, necessary for the reception of the MinDig TV service. Hereby for those viewers, upgrading their old TV-sets to LCD or plasma TV-sets equipped with a DVB-T MPEG-4 tuner, there is no need to buy a separate set-top-box for the usage of the MinDig TV service.

Antenna Hungária

Further information:
Antenna Hungária
András Tóth

Head of Communication
Tel: +36 1 464-2110
E-mail: totha [kukac] ahrt [pont] hu

About MinDig TV (www.mindigtv.hu)
About MinDig TV Extra (www.mindigtvextra.hu)