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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...

A new act on collective rights management (Law 4481/2017) was passed by the Greek Parliament and published on 20 July 2017. It incorporates Directive 2014/26/EU into national legislation, amends certain provisions of Law 2121/1993 (Copyright, Related Rights and Cultural Matters) (see IRIS 1995-1:Extra), and introduces provisions for combatting copyright infringements on the Internet. The new legislation regulates collective rights management in Greece and, among other issues, covers the organisation of collective management organisations (CMOs), the representation and membership of rightsholders,...

The plenary session of the Council of State, Greece’s supreme administrative court, published on 13 January 2017 its decision no. 95/2017 on the application by Antenna TV for the nullification of Ministerial Decision No. 4297/1.3.2016 of the Minister of the State by which the Minister transferred to the Secretariat General of Information and Communication the authority to licence four HD, nationwide, free to air, DTT providers. The announcement of the outcome of the internal deliberation of the court on 26 October 2016 had already resulted in the interruption of the licensing procedure, which had...

The issue of licensing television stations remains of high political importance in Greece. As mentioned in a previous IRIS article (IRIS 2016-5/20), this procedure was not held by the competent independent authority (Ethniko Symvoulio Radiotileorasis - National Council of Radio and Television) but by a special committee the members of which were appointed by the government. The invitation to tender for the granting of four licences to content providers of nationwide, free-to-air, digital terrestrial, with general informative content, was issued at the end of May by the Minister of State Nikos Pappas....

An intense political controversy over licensing of digital television has arisen in Greece after the unsuccessful effort to nominate new members of the Regulatory Authority Ethniko Symvoulio Radiotileorasis (National Council of Radio and Television - ESR) in February 2016. According to Act 3439/2015, ESR must, first, give its opinion to the competent minister on the number and the kind of licences to be allocated and the auction’s starting price, and, secondly, carry out the auction procedure and issue licences (see IRIS 2016-1/16). However, a decision on the nomination of ESR members, which is...