One viewing card must cover all DTT pay-TV services in Finland

According to a decision by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA), all pay-TV services provided to consumers in the antenna network must be accessed by one viewing card in the future. Currently, one card does not cover all pay channels in the antenna network.

Today, consumers must change cards in order to watch the channels of more than one pay-TV operator. In FICORA’s view, the current practice makes it unreasonably difficult to use pay-TV services and may hinder development in the market.

By virtue of its decision of 7 May, FICORA has obliged PlusTV and DNA Oy, which provide pay-TV services in the antenna network, to ensure that there is no need for the consumer to change cards in the middle of watching if s/he uses more than one pay-TV service in the antenna network. FICORA’s decision obliges to implement ‘the one card principle’ by 1 October 2012. The decision was considered to be necessary, because PlusTV’s opinions were against the implementation of ‘the one card principle’.

The Communications Market Act includes provisions on ‘the one card principle’. The objective of the provision is to prevent situations where consumers would have to change pay cards when using the services of several service providers.