KPN secures digital-terrestrial licence

Dutch telco KPN has acquired a new licence to enable it to continue broadcasting its digital-terrestrial TV service until 2030.

KPN’s current licence expires in January next year. The company said that the new licence would ensure continuity of service for hundreds of thousands of users in The Netherlands.

KPN’s new licence to broadcast in DVB-T, issued by the country’s Radiocommunications Agency, is effective from February 1 2017 for a period of 13 years.

It will also all KPN to begin airing new HD channels in the DVB-T2 format, offsetting the allocation of part of the 700MHz band for mobile applications from 2020.

The granting of the licence followed the withdrawal of a rival bidder from the auction for the licence, leaving KPN free to continue to offer its Digitenne DTT pay TV service.

The licence for a fifth multiplex previously awarded to Dutch public broadcaster NPO was renewed automatically.