Greece

[GR] New tender for digital television to be published

IRIS 2017-9:1/21

Alexandros Economou

National Council for Radio and Television

New developments on the licensing procedure for free-to-air, nationwide, DTT are to be mentioned, after the abrogation of the former tender due to a decision of the Council of State (see IRIS 2017-3/19).

In June 2017, the Parliament voted a provision requiring all providers of national coverage to broadcast their programmes using high definition and standard definition formats at the same time until 31 December 2021. In a report submitted to the Parliament, this decision is justified by findings that "a significant number of television sets are old-fashioned and do not receive a high-definition signal".

Subsequently, on 6 July 2017, the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) announced its binding opinion to grant seven nationwide, free-to-air licenses covering general informative content. In its decision, ESR emphasised the need to "grant in the near future licenses for non-informative or thematic programmes" in order to take advantage of the total capacity of the spectrum dedicated to nationwide providers (that is, 12 licenses: three programmes on each of the four multiplexers). According to ESR’s decision, the fact that one of the four multiplexers is currently leased to the public broadcaster ERT was taken into account, while recalling that "despite the fact that over the next decade (...) European countries should allocate some of the spectrum to telecoms companies, spectrum exploitation capabilities are expected to increase due to the use of new compression and transmission technologies”.

A few days later, on 28 July, ESR published its binding opinion on the starting auction price. Taking account of “the well-known conditions of the television market” and an increasing trend in advertising costs, as well as the fact that during the last (cancelled) tender the four licenses had been allocated for EUR 246 million (see IRIS 2016-9/20), the regulatory authority determined that the auction procedure should begin at the amount of EUR 35 million.

The Minister of Digital Policy, Nikos Pappas, has published two relevant decisions adopting ESR’s position. The decision on the auction price provoked reactions amongst private channels, claiming the lack of a documented study that could justify the fact that the starting price is 10 times higher than that of the cancelled tender. The invitation to tender for the granting of seven licenses is to be published by ESR in the next few weeks.


References

  • Άρθρο 83 (Νόμος 4478/2017) σχετικά με τον τρόπο μετάδοσης των παρόχων εθνικής εμβέλειας
  • https://www.forin.gr/laws/law/3585/nomos-4478-2017
  • Act 4478/2017, Art. 83 on mode of transmission of nationwide providers


  • Υπουργική Απόφαση 1830/2017 «Καθορισμός αριθμού δημοπρατούμενων αδειών παρόχων περιεχομένου επίγειας ψηφιακής τηλεοπτικής ευρυεκπομπής ελεύθερης λήψης εθνικής εμβέλειας ενημερωτικού προγράμματος γενικού περιεχομένου»
  • https://www.e-nomothesia.gr/inner.php/enemerose-tupos-radiophono-teleorase/upourgike-apophase-1830-2017-fek-2337b-10-7-2017.html
  • Μinisterial Decision 1830/2017, “Determination of number of number of licenses of nationwide providers”usg=AFQjCNHGsbWzMealQhOgVjlUXfe7OopS8w


  • Koινή Υπουργική Απόφαση 2178/2017 «Καθορισμός τιμής εκκίνησης για καθεμία από τις επτά (7) δημοπρατούμενες άδειες παρόχων περιεχομένου επίγειας ψηφιακής τηλεοπτικής ευρυεκπομπής ελεύθερης λήψης εθνικής εμβέλειας ενημερωτικού προγράμματος γενικού περιεχομένου»
  • http://www.nomotelia.gr/photos/File/2684b-17-2178.pdf
  • Co-ministerial Decision 2178/2017, “Determination of auction’s starting price of licenses of nationwide providers”

Related articles

IRIS 2017-3:1/19 [GR] Council of State decision on digital television licences

IRIS 2016-9:1/20 [GR] Tender for digital television licences held

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.