RÚV reports some Icelanders might have problems watching the UEFA Cup on their televisions.
“It’s likely that about 50,000 – 100,000 people will have trouble viewing the UEFA Cup because the channel won’t be available on the UHF (ultra high frequency) system,” says electronic engineer Vilmundur Sigurðsson.
Vilmundur runs a company that sets up television services across the country, especially in summerhouses. He advises people to look into the matter soon as the tournament starts next Friday, June 10.
The reason why the championship will not be shown on the UHF system is because Síminn does not yet have access to the channel from Vodafone. About 5% of the population only has access to UHF.
“It can be expected that 20,000 – 30,000 people will be in summerhouses in June and July. They will not have access to the channel,” he says.
During the UEFA Cup, there will be the possibility to stream the games with an app if you have 4G, and there are also numerous streaming sites to choose from, but Vilmundur has his doubts that this will solve the problem.
“[The app] is a very good solution but it can only handle so much capacity,” he says. “During the summer months, and especially when everyone wants to watch the UEFA Cup, the system won’t be able to handle it all.”
In addition, Síminn Sport uses a special compression technique to add more channels to the system. This means you need a very new TV in order to get these channels. Most people have older ones in their summerhouses. Vilmundur advises people to prepare for this in order to be able to watch all the matches on TV.
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