Television in Croatia

The DVB-T and satellite transmission infrastructure is developed and maintained by the state-owned company Odašiljači i veze (OiV).

Television in Croatia, as well as other media in the country, are criticised for lack of balance of global issues and trends on one hand and national topics covered on the other.

Television in Croatia is considered to be important in avenue for NGOs communicating their concerns to the public and to criticising the Croatian authorities.

Beginning on 26 August 1939, the Zagreb Fair featured a Philips television system, operated for short periods each day of the exhibition (until 4 September).

The Philips television, consisting of a transmitter and several receivers, was operated by Eric Klaas de Vries in the Dutch pavilion at the fair.

[1] A transmitter was set up on Sljeme in the Tomislavov Dom Hotel, and during the evening of 15 May 1956, Austrian and Italian channels were transmitted (including Rai 1).

was set up as an independent company; it was previously a part of HRT and it was tasked with maintaining the television-transmission infrastructure in Croatia.

The Government of Croatia decided that simulcast (simultaneous analog and digital DVB-T broadcasting of the main channels) was to cease in 2010.

The process was completed, achieving digital switchover on 5 October 2010, but geographically isolated areas were left with analog broadcasts.

[11] The government-subsidized purchase of DVB-T receivers, distributing discount coupons worth 75 kuna (c. 10 euros) to subscribers of the HRT.

The company was established as an independent entity in 2002, when a division developing and maintaining electronic communications infrastructure was removed from the HRT corporate system.

When DVB-T broadcasting started in Italy in December 2010, interference was observed in northwest parts of Istria, and later in areas around Zadar and Šibenik.

[17][18] OIV installed additional transmitters in the affected areas to strengthen its signal coverage and reduce interference by February 2011 at a cost of 1 million kuna (c. 133,000 euros).

[19] Although Italian Minister of Economic Development Paolo Romani announced in August 2011 that the problems should be resolved shortly (a transmitter causing interference was shut down and the power of several others was reduced),[20] the situation was not completely resolved throughout 2011 and the International Telecommunication Union's Radio Regulations Board became involved in the process.

[21] In the meantime, other technical solutions were devised and implemented (in addition to the emergency transmitters) in order to improve digital-television-signal reception.

[24] Since 2007 television audience measurement is conducted by the Nielsen Company using 1,086 peoplemeters, and it is applied to terrestrial, cable and satellite TV.

[25][26] HRT 1, Nova TV and RTL Televizija channels' programmes are not specialized and comprise news, a variety of scripted and unscripted entertainment, as well as documentaries.

[27] In addition, Croatian Radiotelevision is legally required to produce and broadcast programmes covering education of youths, aimed at the Croatian diaspora, national minorities in Croatia, preservation of cultural and natural heritage, protection of the environment, promotion of democracy and civil society, and support national production of films, television programme and music.

[25][26] Experimental high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasting began in Zagreb in March 2007; it was expanded to Split, Rijeka and Osijek in 2008.

Pursuant to the digital television switchover developed by the Government of Croatia, broadcasting of DVB-T HDTV channels was conducted in MPEG-4.

In terms of IPTV density Croatia is the fifth-ranked market in the world, trailing only Singapore, Hong Kong, Cyprus and Estonia.

HAKOM was established by the Electronic Communications Act of 26 June 2008; pursuant to Article 5 of the act, HAKOM is tasked with promoting and safeguarding market competition and the interests of service users in the field of electronic communication services and infrastructure, while contributing to the development of the internal market of the European Union.

One such regulation, aimed at protection of minors, restricts depictions of violence, sexual intercourse, profanity, use of intoxicating substances and tobacco and other scenes which may be harmful to development of minors between seven in the morning and nine, ten or eleven in the evening, depending on rating of specific programme—advising that the programme is not suitable for persons under 12, 15 or 18 years of age respectively.

[50] HAKOM grants, evaluates and revokes broadcast licenses for all forms of electronic communications in Croatia, approves mergers of communications-industry companies, imposes fines on those who are found to be in breach of applicable regulation and conducts constant supervision of the industry.

[48] National legislation requires that all television programmes broadcasts in Croatia are made in Croatian or with appropriate translations either using dubbing or subtitling.

An attempt to change this was made by Nova TV in 2006, when a soap opera was dubbed, but the move provoked negative response from viewers and critics, causing the experiment to be abandoned.

[53] Television in Croatia, as all other media in the country are criticized for lack of balance of global issues and trends on one hand and national topics covered on the other.

This is viewed through international ownership structures of the privately owned television broadcasters having little regard for promotion of national culture and social issues, as well as through efforts of the state-run HRT to attract advertisers through programming that is thought to appeal to the viewers the best in spite of regulation of programming content and restricted advertising at HRT.

[54][55] The HRT is limited by a special legislation regulating that broadcaster to four minutes of advertising in prime time period between 6 and 10 in the evening.

Three men sitting on back of Philips truck
Philips demonstrated television at the Zagreb Fair in 1939
Television Zagreb building: Four-story, curved gray building
Television Zagreb set up its studio in Šubićeva Street in 1962 [ 2 ]
Map of Croatia with digital TV regions
DVB-T regions of Croatia
Large, low gray building housing Croatian Radiotelevision headquarters in Zagreb
HRT headquarters in Zagreb
Small photo of unused TV studio, with cameras covered
HRT's Anton Marti studio
Croatian morning-show studio, with woman seated on sofa and man behind her standing at counter
Studio set of HRT's morning show Dobro jutro Hrvatska in February 2008
Orange, red and white TV studio, with blue chairs and gray camera
An RTL talk show studio
TV director's console, with many monitors on wall
Television director's desk at HRT
T-Hrvatski Telekom headquarters, a tall building with a red T on the side
Headquarters of T-Hrvatski Telekom ( T-HT ), the largest IPTV provider in Croatia
Light-colored satellite dishes on the HRT building in Zagreb
Satellite dishes at the HRT building in Zagreb