June 10 (SeeNews) - Romania’s telecoms regulator, ANCOM, said on Tuesday it awarded Societatea Nationala de Radiocomunicatii (SNR) 10-year licences for three digital television multiplexes for 1.02 million euro ($1.39 million) in total.
The other company that had taken part in the tender, RCS&RDS, did not win any of the five licences offered in the procedure.
SNR won one multiplex in the UHF band for free-to-air broadcast and another two multiplexes in the UHF band, ANCOM said in a statement.
ANCOM launched the tender procedure for four multiplexes in UHF and one in VHF, in the DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) standard in March, setting the starting price at 300,000 euro each. The licences will enter into force as of June 17, 2015.
SNR, as the winner of the first multiplex in UHF (MUX 1), will have the obligation to broadcast free-to-air, under transparent, competitive and non-discriminatory conditions, the public and private television stations that are currently broadcast in analogue terrestrial system. It will also have to ensure a coverage, in fixed reception, of 90% of the population and of 80% of the territory by December 31, 2016. It is the only multiplex, out of the five available, bearing such coverage obligations.
For the other multiplexes the operator will have the obligation to launch in operation by May 1, 2017 at least 36 emission stations for each of the networks corresponding to these multiplexes, installed one in each allocation area.
In Romania, the digital switch-over shall be completed by June 17, 2015, according to the 2006 Geneva Agreement signed by Romania and to the strategy approved by the government. On June 17, 2015, all analogue terrestrial broadcasting will be switched off and replaced by the digital terrestrial broadcasting of radio and TV programmes and related multimedia services.
($=0.7355 euro)