"Mea culpa," said Nikodimos Damianou, Deputy Minister of Research and Innovation, before the Parliamentary Committee on Transportation regarding the “chaos” that ensued in thousands of Cypriot households due to the transition of private television stations to the Hellas Sat platform and the new DVB-T2 technology.

Mr. Damianou took full responsibility for the lack of public information and the technical problems that arose, leaving hundreds of citizens in the dark for over a week, staring at their TV screens.

Responding to key questions from the Committee’s members of Parliament, the Deputy Minister of Research and Innovation noted that he never claimed that the transition of Cypriot television to a new platform would be problem-free, however, it appears that the problems were not properly assessed.

Mr. Damianos emphasized that this is a 15-year project that requires specific planning, which did not include the possibility of running the Velister platform in parallel in the event that problems arose.

He explained that Cyprus is the last country in the European Union to have remained on the previous broadcasting technology and that the government’s goal is for citizens to continue watching television with betterpicture and sound quality.

When asked whether the government is considering subsidizing citizens who need to install special equipment to receive the signal, he replied that such a possibility has not been considered at this time and promised to revisit the issue.

At the same time, he announced technical upgrades to the broadcast network to address the “sensitivity” that appears to exist among residential users, as well as a new public awareness campaign to inform citizens.

The Deputy Ministry is also expected to issue recommendations to the contractor to intervene on-site wherever there are problems with TV retuning, especially in cases involving citizens who belong to vulnerable population groups.