Grk101

The Greek National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) is close to announcing a new licensing process. Supposedly the 9 member committee is having a hard time coming to agreement, but these are the three options on the table so far: 1. Delay license auction to sometime in the future, most likely until 2020 when Greece is expected to complete a series of frequency commitments it has. 2. Give out more than 4 licenses, but with low financial return. 3. Give out 5 or less licenses, as the market cannot support more. http://www.tvnea.com/2017/04/blog-post_67.html So basically option 1 is them being indecisive, option 2 is give them to anyone who wants one, option 3 is a rehash of the previous process, with 1 additional license available....

Looks like Ellas TV "bought out" rival IPTV companies TV Cosmo and Astera TV. http://tvcosmo.com/ http://asteratv.com/

All the winners have had their money returned and are demanding a new auction process. In a twist, I recently read that some owners are now in favor of only 4 licenses.

Who is going to pay for this channel? There is absolutely nothing of interest on ERT World anymore. All 3 of the ERT channels put together can't even reach 10% audience share daily in Greece. I seriously doubt ERT World will acquire any sports rights as well....

What a joke this whole process has been. The sad part is, the channels that had originally won licenses had already started to invest big in programing this year as a result. (Almost at per-crisis levels) SKAI is still going through with their investment plans for this TV season. They just announced they are launching a 24 hour news channel "SKAI 24" on NOVA/OTE TV within a month, while they also have hopes to launch SKAI Satellite channel in North America and Australia. (Looks like their content deal with NGTV is over.)

Does Bell Fibe still broadcast a version of Skai? It appears NGTV now has a content agreement with STAR International now only.

The new television station by Marinakis will officially be called "ONE CHANNEL". See the logo below in their press release:

I'll believe it when I see it. ERT needs to build up their content lineup again first IMO.

Word is that Marinakis has already booked the television talent for his new channel, and is going big. The channel will be broadcasting out of the older MEGA studios. Rumor also is that he plans to buy the MEGA video library if it goes to bankruptcy auction. Meanwhile at MEGA....... This is based solely on classics from their video library at this point, while the other channels have started premiering their original content.

Looks like the focus now turns to Ivan Savvidis, as he was the next highest bid in the last round. Savvidis has already publicly accepted the license, and asked for a few days to submit the money. The other three parties have submited their first payments for their licenses. Savvidis also publicly made a public offer to Alpha and Star for a potential alliance. http://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/09/26/government-friendly-tv-license-applicant-disqualifies-for-failing-to-pay-tender-tranche/ http://www.ekathimerini.com/212319/article/ekathimerini/news/focus-shifts-to-savvidis-after-kalogritsas-gives-up-tv-license Of course one could argue that the attention should be turning to Alpha instead, who was the next highest bidder (after Marinakis, but he already has a license) from the 2nd round that Kalogritsas won his license from.

We knew MEGA was not going to be part of the bidding process, and reports before the auction had stated STAR wasn't planning to bid above 10-15 million. The biggest surprise is ALPHA not winning a license, as the are arguably, one of the top channels in Greece currently. (Just this past week they top the Nielsen ratings, even with re-runs.) ALPHA's top bid was 61 million Euro, and the channel reports that any higher bid would not have been economically viable to them. It will be interesting to see what happens with them, all the big name talent has vowed to stand by the channel. ------------- Also here is another great excerpt to sum up this process from the WSJ:

^^ SKAI is not very friendly toward SYRIZA to begin with, and they certainly are not holding back even after winning a license. I wouldn't be surprised if they find a reason to discredit SKAI's bid at this rate. -------------- Rumors have already began to fly about what Marinakis plans for his new channel. Of course the plans include broadcasting rights for ALL Olympiakos games. http://www.tvnea.com/2016/09/blog-post_60.html -------------- Also here are the maximum bids by round. Each horizontal line of data represents a round.

It is interesting how the bidding shook out: SKAI - 43.6 Million Euro over 56 rounds Vladimiros Ioannis Kalogritsas - 52.6 Million Euro over 78 rounds ANT1 - 75.9 million Euro over 99 rounds Alter Ego (Marinakis) 73.9 million Euro over 117 rounds If any of the 4 above winners do not pass an "asset and wealth inspection", then one of the 4 runner ups will replace them. (Ivan Savvidis (61.5 million euros), Alpha TV (61 million euros), the Cypriot-based venture (18 million euros) and Star Channel (13 million euros)). There is also a pending court case about the process, as well as promises by opposing political parties to add more licenses or reverse the whole process. If everything remains as planned though, it means ALPHA, STAR, MEGA and EPSILON remain without nationwide licenses and are at danger of ceasing to broadcast within 90 days. It will be interesting to see if the two new players that won licenses try to make a deal with one of the channels. There is also the satellite pay TV option, as well as one of the future more restrictive television licenses that are rumored to be offered (themed content, regional, etc.) though it would change their whole financial dynamics if they went any of those routes and might not be beneficial. These high bidding amounts are also expected to cut into the operating budgets of the channels, with cuts expected...... http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=825539 http://www.tvnea.com/2016/09/blog-post_45.html

Tomorrow is the big day. There have been attempts by practically all the bidders (even the newcomers) to stop the auction due to some inconsistencies with the process, but it is still planned to go ahead tomorrow morning. The latest development is that EPSILON TV has been cut from the approved bidder shortlist just a day before the auction, due to the channel not meeting the specified criteria. Whatever channel does not win a license tomorrow, will be forced to go off air within 90 days. Since both MEGA and now EPSILON are not part of the process, it looks like they will cease to broadcast this fall if the process goes as planned. I am wondering if any of these channels will try their hand at being a subscriber driver channel on NOVA/OTE. There is also the possibilities that they will shift their efforts to Cyprus, where television licenses are only 200,000 Euro if i recall and are not limited. Alpha TV launched Alpha TV Cyprus earlier this year, many saying it was a backup channel in case they do not get a license in Greece.

The auction for the 4 nationwide television licenses is expected to take place on August 30th amid more concerns about the whole process. http://www.ekathimerini.com/211297/article/ekathimerini/news/auction-for-tv-licenses-is-set-for-august-30-amid-concerns MEGA Channel has officially been taken off the eligibility list.... The 9 remaining contenders are: SKAI SA, NTV Nea Tileorasi, Antenna TV, Alpha Satellite Television S.A., Ioannis-Vladimiros H. Kalogritsas, E TV, Alter Ego, Dimera Media Investments Ltd and ITV CP. http://www.amna.gr/english/article/14792/Final-list-of-contenders-for-TV-licences-tender-announced Also an interesting article about the opposing views of the whole process. They also want to reform the television advertisement market. http://www.thenationalherald.com/130790/