The Parliamentary Committee on Transportation will discuss the problems caused by the transition of Cypriot television to a new, digital platform—which resulted in hundreds of households seeing a “black screen” for about ten days.

Committee Chairman Sotiris Ioannou stated on the Alpha News program that the relevant government agencies are responsible for the situation that has arisen, as viewers include vulnerable population groups and senior citizens who may not have been aware of the necessary technical changes or who cannot afford the cost.

Mr. Ioannou noted that Parliament must consider what will happen in three months, when the temporary reactivation of the old platform ends, since there appears to be no way to resolve the problems that have arisen.

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Petros Theocharidis, spokesperson for Hellas Sat, recalled that in 2011, during Cyprus’s transition to digital television, the issue had been discussed by the Council of Ministers and the House of Representatives due to the numerous and serious problems faced by viewers, noting that at that time, approximately 30 communities had no signal.

As he noted, the Hellas Sat call center, which was set up to serve the public from May 1 through July 1, had not received a single call. On July 1, it received 1,700 calls, but by last Saturday, that number had dropped to 150.

According to statistics he presented, there are 650,000 televisions in operation in Cyprus. Up to 50,000 televisions are sold each year, bringing the total number of new-technology televisions to half a million.

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