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ANCOM Finalised the Documentation of the Tender for Awarding the Digital Television Multiplexes

05.03.2014

 

 

The Romanian Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) concluded the public consultation process on the decision and the Terms of Reference of the auction for awarding the licences for Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial system. The auction will start after the publication of the decision in the Romanian Official Journal.
The five digital terrestrial television multiplexes, four in UHF and one in VHF, in the DVB-T2 standard, will be awarded by means of a competitive selection procedure. The minimum licence fee for each of the five multiplexes amounts to EUR 300,000.
“Once the auction is initiated, the interested parties will have six weeks to submit their initial bids. If demand exceeds the offer, there will be auction rounds that will start one month after the submission deadline for the initial offer and we intend to complete the process by the middle of 2014,” declared Cătălin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM.
The competitive selection procedure requires that each bidder submits an initial offer indicating the number of multiplexes it intends to purchase. Where the request exceeds the number of available multiplexes, primary rounds will be organised until the demand does no longer exceed the offer. Where, after the closure of the primary rounds, there are still multiplexes that have not been awarded to any of the bidders, ANCOM may decide, in order to award the remaining multiplexes, to organise an additional primary round in which all the bidders qualified in the tender stage may participate.
Moreover, the multiplexes MUX2, MUX3 and MUX4 will be allocated to the winners, following the initial offer or the additional rounds, as applicable, during an allocation round. The starting price for each multiplex is the minimum licence fee of EUR 300,000 established by the Government, upon ANCOM’s proposal.
The winner of the first multiplex in UHF (MUX 1) will have the obligation to broadcast free to air, under transparent, competitive and non-discriminatory conditions, the public and private television programmes that are currently broadcast in terrestrial analogue system, in accordance with the provisions of the Audiovisual Law. Moreover, according to the Strategy elaborated by the Ministry of Information Society, this multiplex will have to ensure a coverage, in fixed reception, of 90% of the population and of 80% of the territory by 31 December 2016, being the only multiplex, out of the 5 available, that bears such coverage obligations. For MUX 2, MUX 3, MUX 4 and MUX 5, the operators will have the obligation to launch in operation - by 1 May 2017 -  at least 36 emission stations for each of the networks corresponding to these multiplexes, installed one in each allocation area.
All the multiplexes will be granted for a 10-year period, while the licences will enter into force starting from 17 June 2015. The winners will have the obligation to pay the licence fee established following the auction within 90 calendar days from the date of releasing the results of the selection procedure.
In order to qualify for the tender stage, a bidder must fulfil all of the qualification criteria, such as: it should be a Romanian or foreign company; the average turnover for the last 3 years, or for the period elapsed from its establishment if the company is younger than three years, should be at least EUR 2,000,000; the bidder’s operation period provided in its articles of incorporation should be at least until 17 June 2025; the bidder must prove the accomplishment of its payment obligations to the state budget, to the social insurance budget and to the special funds of taxes, dues, contributions and other revenues, as well as to ANCOM; the bidder should not be part of another bidder’s group.
A digital multiplex is a group of radio broadcasting and television programmes, additional multimedia services and other associated identification data transmitted from the emission stations to the end-users by terrestrial radio means, using digital modulation within the limits of a standard television channel/frequency block.
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