The government on Thursday called for the temporary re-introduction of the old broadcasting standard for television sets, after complaints from thousands of people that the switch to the new standard left them with no reception.

Nicodemos Damianou, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, told the media that they’re proposing bringing back the previous DVB-T platform for a period of two months, until television owners make the necessary adjustments. The government proposes having the old standard operate temporarily alongside the new standard.

The new DVB-T2 platform – which stands for Digital Video Broadcasting, Second Generation Terrestrial – was applied on July 1. It’s the technical standard used for receiving over-the-air, free-to-air digital television through a standard antenna. With a bigger bandwidth, DVB-T2 supports high-definition signals.

But the transition on July 1 left thousands of people without a television signal. This affected private, free-to-air channels, while public broadcasters like CyBC were unaffected. The affected channels include Sigma, which has the exclusive rights in Cyprus to broadcast the World Cup.

If a TV set supports DVB-T2 technology, a simple re-tuning of the channels will suffice. If not, people must purchase and install an external decoder.

Retailers say that, generally, any ‘modern’ television manufactured after 2017 should support DVB-T2. However, in practice that is not always the case.

In addition, many people who did install the decoders were still unable to get a signal.

Hellas Sat, which is responsible for the transition to the new standard, has attributed the problems to ‘old’ antenna installations, problematic wiring and non-compatible decoders on the market.

Since the switchover, the company has been inundated with phone calls for tech support.

Christodoulos Protopapas, the CEO of Hellas Sat, said that in particular antenna amplifiers and old wiring present a problem.

In some cases, for televisions imported from Greece, people should change their set’s regional settings before re-tuning the channels.

For tech support at Hellas Sat, the number to call is 22000737.

The Cyprus Mail has heard of cases where television sets that do support DVB-T2 were still unable to get a signal, or initially got a signal but then didn’t.