Brussels, 16/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to initiate a formal investigation procedure into the financing of a digital terrestrial television network (DVB-T) in Sweden. The Commission received complaints from satellite providers, suspecting the measures constitute unfair state aid. The Commission has assessed the financing of the network's rollout and cannot at this stage rule out that the financing involves state aid.
The digital terrestrial television network (DVB-T) covers more than 90 percent of national territory. The public broadcaster SVT is obliged by law to use the DVB-T network provided by Teracom and to pay Teracom a fee for the transmission of its television programs. The total payments made by SVT to Teracom seem to be higher than the actual transmission costs. The Swedish authorities have directly granted guarantees and provided a capital injection to Teracom. In a press release, the Commission points out that changing over to digital TV from analogue TV requires transparent, justified and proportionate intervention from Member States' media authorities and any aid must be non-discriminatory and technologically neutral (in line with the guidelines set out in Communication COM-2003-0541). The Commission now invites comments from the Swedish government and other interested parties.