Bulgaria

[BG] Request for the termination of licences for terrestrial broadcasting of two specialised programmes

IRIS 2014-8:1/9

Rayna Nikolova

New Bulgarian University

On 20 May 2014, the Council for Electronic Media took decisions to terminate the licences for the distribution of two audiovisual media services. On the one hand, this concerned the audiovisual media service under the label „bTV Lady+1“, having a specialised profile (targeting the female audience), nation-wide territorial coverage and designed for distribution by means of terrestrial digital distribution networks. The other decision was directed towards the audiovisual media service under the label „РИНГ.БГ+1“ (RING.BG+1) having a specialised profile (in the fields of sports and entertainment), nation-wide territorial coverage and designed for distribution by means of terrestrial digital distribution networks.

Both requests for the licences termination were lodged by „bTV Media Group“ in front of the Council for Electronic Media on 7 March 2014. The reason for the requests for the licence terminations lies in a business decision of the company. This decision is taken with regard to the fact that the broadcasting of specialised programmes (limited size of the target TV audience) by terrestrial means is financially unviable. In economic terms the payment of fees to obtain terrestrial broadcasting is very expensive. That is the reason why these specialized programmes only continue to be broadcast via cable and satellite.

The regulatory body was hesitant and discussed on several occasions the issue at its meetings held on 25 March, 1 April, 8 April, 15 April and 24 April 2014, which resulted in the initiation by „bTV Media Group“ of judicial proceedings against the silent refusal of the administrative body to act under Article 121 (1) No. 4 of the Radio and Television Act, according to which the licence may be terminated in advance upon a request made by the licence holder. This provision constitutes the legal basis for the licence termination by the Council for Electronic Media.