By M. Hatzikonstantinou
The relevant government minister on Monday called on the four winners of a controversial auction for nationwide television broadcast licenses in the country to “maintain legality”, while reminding that the law gives him the right to recall a license.
On their part, the highest bidders for the four licenses, two current broadcasters (Skai and Ant1) and two new entries into the sector, requested a postponement in the first payment for the licenses due to legal challenges by other television stations that were not successful in the auction. The first major challenge comes this month with a motion towards the Council of State to issue an injunction over the auction procedure.
The procedure itself had representatives of eight potential licensees being kept incommunicado in a ministry building for nearly three days in order to participate in an electronic auction over four rounds – one for every license.
By all accounts, Monday’s separate meetings failed to ameliorate a mutual mood of distrust between current and prospective television operators and the Minister of State, Nikos Pappas, who has come under sustained criticism by the television executives and the political opposition.
Greece’s leftist government referred to a study it commissioned with a sole research institute in an Italian university (Florence) to arrive at a single-digit number – four in this case – for nationwide television licenses in the country of 11 million. Currently, seven broadcasters operate in this category. In essence, the government set the number of licenses and then put them up for auction.
On its part, the Tsipras government said it was finally establishing a legal framework for Greece’s television sector and receiving compensation for use of publicly owed airwaves.
The total from the auction stood at 246 million euros, with future instalments specified in order for the winning television concessionaires to pay the sum of their bid.
Pappas, according to subsequent press reports, repeated that broadcasters must employ at least 400 people on their payroll, provide comprehensive programming and meet certain building and technical specifications, such as 2,500-square-meter headquarters and HD signal. All of the latter provisions, including how many people a private business must employ, were included in legislation submitted by the leftist government and ratified by its thin lefist-rightist coalition majority in Parliament.
On their part, representatives of winning bidders, besides a postponement in the first instalment, called on the government to clarify its position over nationwide broadcast “thematic licenses” and regional licensing. They also objected to a new state-imposed regime on television ad time, saying the framework is attempting to insert “state control in a free market”.
