Romanian licenses for digital terrestrial TV on sale for EUR 0.3 mln starting price

Romanian plans to sell licenses for digital terrestrial television via a competitive selection procedure run by the Romanian communications authority ANCOM at a starting price of EUR 300,000. “ANCOM submits for public consultation the Government decision draft on granting licenses for the use of radio frequencies in the digital terrestrial television system, according to which the minimum license fee for each of the five multiplexes is EUR 300,000,” reads a statement of ANCOM. The communications authority will auction five digital terrestrial television multiplexes, four of them in ultra-high frequency (UHF) and one in very-high frequency (VHF), in DVB-T2 standard. According to ANCOM, the winner of the first UHF multiplex (MUX 1) will have to transmit “free to air”, under transparent, competitive and non-discriminatory conditions, the public and private TV stations that are currently transmitted in the analogue terrestrial system. “Also, this multiplex will have to cover, under fixed reception, 90 percent of the population and 80 percent of the territory until December 31, 2016; it is the only multiplex of the five available which has such coverage obligations,” reads the statement. In case of the other four licenses, the operators are required to have at least 36 functional transmitters for each of the networks corresponding to these multiplexes, by May 1, 2017. All licenses will be awarded for a period of 10 years, and they will come into force starting June 17, 2015. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: sxc.hu)