The government said Thursday it’s mulling giving financial assistance to people for extra expenses incurred during the problematic transition to the new free-to-air television broadcasting standard.

In parliament, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou, said the government may consider possible subsidies going forward.

“I leave the possibility open,” he said.

On July 1 Cyprus switched to a new broadcasting standard – called DVB-T2. But the transition 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.

Earlier this month, the government reactivated the old broadcasting platform, operating alongside the new one. The old standard was brought back temporarily for a period of three months.

Regarding a possible extension for the old platform beyond the three months, Damianou said it was possible.

According to the deputy minister, some technical adjustments will be made to the new DVB-T2 platform, making signal reception easier.

Many people with older television sets had rushed to buy set-top boxes/decoders compatible with DVB-T2. In many reported cases, this did not fix the problem either.

Authorities attributed the issue to faulty wiring and/or old antenna equipment.

For compatible television sets, owners need only re-tune their channels for DVB-T2 coverage.

There were also reports of gouging, with decoders normally going for around €20 being sold for up to €50.

A representative of the Consumers Association said they received hundreds of complaints within the space of a week.

Petros Theocharides, a representative of Hellas Sat – in charge of the transition – said that on July 1 they took delivery of an old system that was “practically dead”.