Digital switchover in Hungary: achievements and challenges

In Hungary, the run-up to digital switchover started in March 2007 with the adoption of a government strategy. Since then, the tendering process for the rights to use the frequencies needed for digital terrestrial broadcast distribution has been completed and DTT services have been launched. Digitization also gained ground in other platforms and by now, more than half of Hungarian households have gone digital. The article starts with an overview of the status of the Hungarian media market as at the beginning of the switchover. Then comes an analysis of the measures taken by legislation and the regulator to accelerate the switchover process, followed by a presentation of the main regulatory issues still to be addressed by Hungary in order to be able to complete the analogue switch-off smoothly and without any major social or market failures. Due to constitutional reasons, Hungarian regulators could use the tools related to media policy and media law only to a limited extent for the support of the switchover. Consequently, the main regulatory burden fell on the telecommunications regulation. The article concludes that telecoms regulation cannot be a full substitute for media regulation in this regard, with national regulations having to find a balance between the two approaches in order to secure the optimal outcome of digital switchover.