ERT Digital () was a pilot project by ERT, the

public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It was the first legal attempt at

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

broadcasting in Greece, featuring four new channels: Cine+, Prisma+ Sport+ and Info+. It was officially launched in early 2006 as part of the

digital television transition The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...

mandated by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The project was funded through ERT's budget and had no

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. In the initial phase of the program, each channel was to broadcast between six and ten hours of original programming. This would last approximately 1–2 years in which time it was anticipated that new programming would be produced for each channel. ERT also hoped to launch at least two more digital channels at some point in the future, a lifestyle channel and a children's channel. The programming on the four digital channels was separate and distinct from that featured on ERT's three traditional analogue services - ΕΤ1, ΝΕΤ and ΕΤ3. ERT Digital was available to approximately 65% of the population, mainly in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

and some other major cities. It broadcast

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

without any subscription cost, requiring only a generic

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Fe ...

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. The issue of paying for the four digital channels had been a bone of contention for many Greek citizens as ERT was funded by a fee levied on all Greek households through their electricity bills. Some contended that they should not have to pay for a service they might not be able to receive or did not want to watch.

RIK Sat

RIK Sat Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (; ), or CyBC (; ), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic television channels, and uses one satellite channel for the Cypriot diaspora. It also transmits o ...

was also offered on the same frequency, accounting as the temporary fourth channel of the bouquet. {{Television in Greece Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation Defunct television channels in Greece Television in Greece Digital television Television channels and stations established in 2006 2006 establishments in Greece