Hakom - Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency

ZAGREB, December 2, 2016 - According to the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), Italian broadcasters carried out the process of switching off of the internationally disharmonized transmitters that have been causing the interferences in the reception of Croatian TV channels along the Adriatic coast. It refers to the transmitters operating on the channels used by the Croatian broadcasters pursuant to the international agreements. The closing of the distracting transmitters in the Republic of Italy was carried out through a process of voluntary termination or transition program to other networks on the channels not causing interferences to the Croatian television channels.

The Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) carried out measuring activities of disturbing signals from the Republic of Italy at several locations in the County of Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and a significant reduced level of interfering signals on television channels 22, 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 39, 45 and 53 located in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and on television channels 22, 27, 28, 29, 35, 39, 45 and 53 from the region of Veneto. The switch-off procedure of more than 260 transmitters in these two regions has removed harmful interferences of  the Italian broadcasters and improved the reception of television signals in digital region D5 (Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County), especially of the locations that were exposed to strong Italian interferences. For other switched off regions, for the time being, HAKOM cannot confirm the results. In the coming period, HAKOM will carry out further measurements in the northern, central and southern Dalmatia and inform about the results of the restructuring. It is necessary to wait summer time or better conditions for radio waves propagation for or a safe and final confirmation of the absence of disturbances along the Adriatic coast.

Within the last three years Italy has brought  the regulations and a special law according to which the TV frequency plan has been amended and the frequencies, interfering the neighbouring countries, have been excluded,  the compensation fund has been  founded  and the switching-off procedure of distracting  transmitters has been  prescribed. Apart from the Marche region which has been recently exposed to earthquakes in Italy, the fighting procedure with the interferences was carried out in all the Adriatic regions and on the channel 57 assigned to the national broadcasters in Italy. This significant result is a consequence of many years of HAKOM's activities, which in addition to numerous measurements and reported interferences, resolved the problem through bilateral meetings with the Italian Republic and the activities through international institutions. All the activities were reported to the competent authorities, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Radio Regulation Committee (RRB) and  Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) within the international activities, through the accession of the Republic of Croatia  into the European Union, through the Working Group on Cross-border coordination in the advisory group for the radio frequency spectrum management policy of the European Commission, HAKOM contributed to the adoption of legislative and administrative amendments in the Republic of Italy which are the preconditions for the resolution of these long-term interferences in on TV channels. HAKOM also coordinated  passing of the new TV Plan and the switch off process of distracting transmitters  with the Republic of Italy. Apart from HAKOM’s  switch off  process, other institutions of the Republic of Croatia  were also involved in  the procedure (especially the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure and the Agency for Electronic Media), as well as MISE and Italian communications authority - AGCOM.