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/

Apparently an extension until the end of the week has been given to anyone else who wishes to bid for a license. It is comical that this whole reform is partially driven by a pledge to rid the media of the influence of "big financial interests", yet all 11 bids are just that. But surprise, surprise, -- some of the new bidders now have SYRIZA ties. :ph34r: They will replace existing ones.

The tender for the 4 nationwide "general content" television licenses has come to a close. A total of 11 letters of interest were received. They will be reviewed, and an auction is expected to take place in August. Below are the companies in the running: 1.

This plan is still moving ahead..... The process will begin next week and is expected to be wrapped up by the new television season in the fall. There are multiple interested parties, aside from the current channels broadcasting. EPSILON also is upping the ante, suggesting the licenses should go for 35 million euro instead of 3 million starting price. Various reports suggest the government may ultimately decide to go beyond 4 licenses if interest is high, but that has not been officially confirmed.

It appears it is over SPORT PLUS, which DISH has exclusive rights to.

When ERT World was briefly on SES-1 (Home2us) a few years back, they carried all five of the radio stations. If by some miracle Globecast/ERT vested interests decides to make ERT World available to us FTA on Galaxy 19 with the rest of Globecast's FTA public broadcasters, then I can see them adding all five as well. But I doubt DISH would carry them all. Your mention of a contract in Canada further dims my hopes of FTA. :unsure: It is these very contracts and vested interests that denied us FTA in the past.

Thankfully the Turkish soap fad is over in Greece. :tup:

Based on their "findings", Greece only gets 4 digital multiplexes on the sub-700 MHz band. 2 are reserved for ERT, and the other 2 private. They claim that only 2 HD channels can fit on each multiplex using today's technology. DIGEA went ahead and proved them wrong, fitting 4 HD channels on there with today's technology. (Hence why the sudden rush of HD channels) When this was pointed out, the minister of Media heading this whole thing, started making outlandish claims that other countries that are bigger only have x amount of channels. All that was proven wrong as well. I think this is now a case of ego. They can't go back and say they were wrong.... The report also mentioned that the overall financial obligation in the sector is estimated at 700 million Euro, and that advertising revenues have been falling for the past few years, but this was not considered in their recommendation due to inconsistencies in financial data available to them. They go on to say that more licenses can be issued in the future if future technology allows more than 2 channels per multiplex, but their current finding is based solely on technical grounds and that one could argue that a limited number of licenses should help the channels financially. You can read the report here by the way http://www.ereportaz.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/eui-greece_final_report_excerpts.pdf Totally agree. That was one of the good ideas to come out of the NERIT situation. They are back up to three now, with all of them playing a huge amount of re-runs. What is the point? Ah, did not know that. I know they used to offer a paid streaming app as well, but I see that is also gone now. I can understand cutting the standalone international channel, but it seems strange they cut their programing from NGTV as well. I have no access to NGTV, but I think a channel like that might work on DISH. "The best of" programing from 3-4 of the smaller channels that do not warrant their own standalone channel. By the way, it looks like they (claim) actually took over the distribution of STAR and EPSILON for US/CANADA?? Very true, but if there are investors willing to pay the 3 million euro licensing fee, and support a channel's operations, why limit it to four? There are at least 2 foreign investors looking to buy licenses as well. That being said, I agree there should be some consolidation for the channels that share common share holders. Why try to support multiple channels, and not focus the resources on one? ANT1/MAKEDONIA should merge, same with MEGA/STAR. If this licensing plan goes ahead, it will be interesting to see what happens with the content libraries from the channels that will close. For example, I read that MEGA's biggest asset is their library of content. Would anyone actually buy that though? Would be a shame to loose a lot these archives from any of the channels really.

No, they probably need to renegotiate with pay-tv operators to carry it. It will be free-to-air in Europe. No such luck in North America, especially with Globecast controlling the rights again. :tdown: I wouldn't be surprised if it returns to Australia as a pay channel instead of FTA. I remember there were talks to move it to Pay TV, but the Greek-Australian community was firmly against it. I can see them changing this now with the re-launch.... Anyway, the real question is: Will anyone actually PAY for ERT World, considering how much ERT's programing has degraded? Let's see if something changes....

All of them have some type of international feed/coverage, except for Makedonia TV. ANT1 Satellite/Pacific ALPHA Sat MEGA Cosmos SKAI International STAR International NGTV (Programing from SKAI, STAR, EPSILON) Really no need for a Makedonia TV international channel with the limited amount of Greek material they broadcast.

Basically. The SYRIZA government had vowed to take down these "vampire businesses". The official rational though, is based on a study done by the European University Institute in Florence that found Greece can only support 4 private national channels. The study has been highly debated, and most of the information presented debunked. Public opinion is also predominantly against the plan to pair down the number of channels. (http://newpost.gr/entertainment/media/525714/dhmoskophsh-ths-metron-analysis-gia-thn-eithsee) Despite this, the government is pushing ahead with the plan. Pretty ironic that they fought for the ERT workers, yet are going to be putting hundreds of other television people out of jobs now with this action. By the way, the opposition is using this joke of a plan as a reason to call new elections. Here is an excerpt relating to the license plan from a Washington Post interview with Kyriakos Mitsotakis of ND: