New DTT equipment tender
Bosnia's Ministry of Transport and Communications has opened a tender for the procurement of digital microwave links for public broadcasting service between Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar. The tender is open until the 16th January 2012. The successful applicant will have 100days to complete the groundwork.
According to Vlatko Drmic from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the digital links will be ready by next summer, if there are no administrative barriers. He added that the switchover to digital for the three public broadcasters will cost around €25 million.
Source: Telecompaper
Item added: 12th December 2011 



DTT tender award rescinded
Telecompaper reports that a DTT tender initially won by Croatia’s Ericsson Nikola Tesla has been cancelled following complaints by the local consortium Unis Telekom, one of the failed bidders.
Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Unis Telekom, Serbia’s Nera Beograd and Hungary’s Metalcom were all hoping to secure the right to provide infrastructure for B&H’s DTT and associated digital microwave services.
The move has been criticised by the country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, which said B&H would now have problems in fulfilling its international commitment to complete the transition to digital broadcasting by June 2015.
Source: Broadband TV News
Item added: 6th November 2011 



DTT introduction delayed until 2012
The introduction of DTT in Bosnia and Herzegovina is to be delayed until spring 2012, instead of an earlier plan for the first phase to be completed in October 2011, according to local daily Nezavisne Novine.
The Public Broadcasting Service says that the delay is because of an appeal against the result of the international tender for the DTT equipment. Croatia's Ericsson Nikola Tesla was declared the winner, but domestic company Unis Telekom has complained to the country's Office for Appeals. Consequently it is unlikely that the deadlines will be met for the construction of links and transmitters in the regions of Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka, which would cover about one million viewers.
Source: Telecompaper
Item added: 1st August 2011 



Four bids for DTT infrastructure contract
The Ministry of Communications and Transport (FMPIK) in Bosnia & Herzegovina (B&H) has received four bids to provide the infrastructure for the country’s DTT and associated digital microwave services.
The bids are from UNIS Telekom, Croatia’s Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Serbia’s Nera Beograd and Hungary’s Metalcom.
The tender calls for the Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar to be the first areas provided with DTT and microwave-link infrastructure for the DTT platform
FMPIK is expected to announce a winner for the licences by the middle of May.
The three main broadcasters in B&H are likely to spend in region of BAM25 million (€12.8 million) in launching DTT services.
Source: Broadband TV News
Item added: 3rd May 2011 




Tender for DTT infrastructure launched
Bosnia-Herzegovina has launched a tender for the creation of its DTT infrastructure ahead of the country’s analogue switch-off.
The tender seeks companies to help complete the first phase of the project that will set up digital connections between capital Sarajevo and other main cities including Banja Luka and Mostar. The call for tenders is open for 48 days according to communications ministry official Vlatko Drmic.
Source: Digital TV Europe.net
Item added: 13th February 2011  



Funding agreed to begin digitisation of microwave links
The Council of Ministers has issued a decision to use the excess funds accumulated by the Communications Regulatory Agency to fund a part of a digitisation project.
A total of KM 2.952 million (EUR 1.5 million) will be used to finance the digitisation of public service broadcasters microwave links in the areas of East Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Brcko, Tuzla and Zenica, and Mostar.
Source: DTT Forum translation thanks to Digitag
Item added: 15th November 2010  




Bosnia prepares for DTT
The transition to digital broadcasting is about to get under way in Bosnia & Herzegovina (B and H) reports Broadband TV News.
Although there is as yet no funding for the process, Nezavisne novine and Limun report that the country’s Council of Ministers has promised that the services of a provider selected by tender will be paid for from public funds.
In practical terms, a tender commission will chose a company for the first stage of digitisation and BAM4.2 million (€2.15 million) has already been set aside in funding.
ASO in B and H is currently a distant mid-2015, having previously been at the end of 2011.
A conference entitled Addressing Europe’s Digital Divide: Towards Sustainable Public Service Media in South East Europe was held in Sarajevo during October this year.
Organised by Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat and EBU, it called for public broadcasters, relevant ministries and regulators in the region to join forces to ensure it does not fall behind in the digitisation process.
Source: Broadband TV News
The Bosnia and Herzegovina DTT Forum website can be found by clicking on the following link http://www.dtt.ba
Item added: 1st November 2010



DSO strategy submitted to Government
A Digital Switchover (DSO) Strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was submitted to the Council of Ministers for adoption on the 17th March 2009.
The original draft strategy was initially submitted to the Council of the DTT Forum of BiH on the 31st December with a proposal to open a public consultation.
The public consultation was launched jointly, on the 14th January, by the Ministry of Communication and Transport, The Communications Regulatory Agency and the DTT Forum, with an end date for contributions of the 14th February 2009.
The resulting final draft strategy submitted to government proposes an analogue switch over date for the UHF band of the 1st December 2011 and the use of DVB-T with MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) compression for DTT broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The strategy goes on to advise that the DSO transition period should be as short as possible, assisted by a public information campaign to adequately inform and educate the public on what needs to be done during and before the switch over.
Subsidies should be used as a way of stimulating fast STB penetration, enable monitoring and allow broadcasters to speed up the DSO process.
The DTT Forum has set up a very informative website to provide information on the transition to DTT in Bosnia and Herzegovina and made it available in several languages.
DTT Form website http://www.dtt.ba/eng/index.html
Source: General Secretary of the DTT Forum
Item added: 8th May 2009


Background Information

Bureaucratic problems in the Communication Regulatory Agency (CRA) are highlighted by Sartelcom as the main reason why the introduction of an interactive pay service using DVB-T is currently stalled in Bosnia Herzegovina.
Rudof Bosnjak, owner of Sartelcom says that no regulatory framework currently exists, making progress difficult.

So far Sartelcom, a recent start-up company, have been refused a pilot licence for the project but hope that this situation will soon be reversed.

Sartelcom have also produced some interesting statistics about the TV situation in Bosnia Herzegovina which are detailed on their website  http://www.sartelcom.ba
There are estimated to be 500,000 TV households amongst the 3,500,000 population an to service these households it is suggested that on each of the existing 100 transmitter sites, 5 DVB-T transmitters could be utilised giving over 20 channels.

Source : Sartelcom

Last page update: 12th December 2011, Barry Tew

The information on these pages comes from many sources and whilst DVB believe it to be correct we cannot guarantee its accuracy.