While there has to be a new auction to allocate licenses to Greek private television channels, the ESR (the National Independent Council for regulating broadcasting) wants to increase the number of channels.
ESR’s headquarters
After a long meeting on July 6th, the ESR decided to award 7 broadcast licenses for national private channels in the near future. The Council is thus going against the will of the government, which for the past year has hoped to reduce the number of private channels from 8 (in 2016) to 4.
In September 2016 the government organised an auction of four licenses – raising €246 million in the process. But a month later, the courts invalidated the auction: the law specifies that awarding licenses to private broadcasters must be done by the ESR (whose members are appointed by Parliament), not the government.
Despite the court ruling, the four channels which won the September 2016 auctions are currently on air.
Sources: Advanced Television, Greek Reporter
