Serbia’s television signal is fully digitalized as of today and 97.8 percent of the population is covered by digital broadcasting, while the analog signal is from this day forth a part of history, stated the Serbian Minister of Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić.

“As you saw, we switched off the analog signal here on Kopaonik, and it will be switched off at the broadcasting stations on Jstrebac, Besna Kobila, Cer and Maljen,” Ljajić told reporters on Kopaonik.

The work launched ten years ago has been completed, said Ljajić and recalled that the first experimental digital signal was broadcast back in 2005.

“Unfortunately, there was a lot more talk about digitalization so far than what was done. We talked less but did more,” said Ljajić.

Speaking about the costs of the digitalization process, Ljajić said that the initial estimates had the figures at EUR 100 million, but it later turned out that the sum would be considerably lower and would total around EUR 30 million, plus EUR 10 million worth of EU donations.

We tried to maximize the savings and the Government will release the exact data later on the amounts of money spent in each individual stage of the task, noted Ljajić.

Ljajić stressed that the state-of-the-art equipment has been installed which is used in only six countries in Europe, and added that the Government will realize nearly EUR 100 million worth of revenues from the process.