The final announcement that Italy had ceased broadcasting at 61 frequencies which had caused problems came 11 years after the Slovenian government first upped the ante in 2005 by lodging a formal complaint with the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau about interference resulting from Italian broadcasts. Other countries joined the campaign from 2011 in time for the issue to be raised at the last two ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences of 2012 and 2015, as well as the European Union Radio Spectrum Policy Group from 2012.

Progress resolving the dispute was slow until 2014, according to the ITU, but then the newly elected government of Matteo Renzi heralded a more conciliatory approach from the Italians. The country’s sub-secretary of state Antonello Giacomelli, responsible for telecommunications policy, instigated regulatory and financial legislation to ensure that use of frequencies by Italian broadcasters was brought into line with the ITU’s Radio Regulations and the ITU Regional Agreement signed in Geneva in 2006. These define the international framework for digital terrestrial (DTT) broadcasting in the region.

The length of time taken to resolve the dispute reflects the greater importance of DTT to Italy and its leading broadcasters than in other European countries. DTT’s 70% share of primary TV sets in Italy is the highest in Europe, while average DTT viewing time is 253 minutes per day, compared with an average of 217 for the EU. France and Germany are also notable for DTT penetration but this is even greater in Italy for several reasons, one being the almost total absence of cable TV and limited deployment of IPTV, making satellite the only principle alternative distribution platform.

This is reflected in Italy being the only European country with a significant pay TV platform, RTI’s Mediaset Premium, which has almost 20% of the country’s pay TV market and offers pay per view for football matches. Yet another factor is that the top free-to-air broadcasters have highly integrated ecosystems from content production to distribution, which makes it worth their while to continue investing in DTT.

Given all these factors it is not surprising that Italy is at the leading edge of DTT innovation and deployment, having been first to launch a second-generation DVB-T2 multiplex in 2010. The Italian DTT market received a more recent fillip when the government mandated that all TV sets sold from the start of 2014 must be compatible with DVB-T2 and MPEG-4.

Against this background the country was reluctant to give up broadcasting on the frequencies that caused interference, but now the emergence of HEVC compression for DTT has provided more headroom for additional HD and possibly ultra HD channels. The country has plenty of physical capacity with two broadcasting tower networks having national coverage, from EI Towers and Rai Way which were planning to merge at one time, along with seven multiplex operators.