Three groups vie to inform Bulgarians on switchover to digital TV

The candidates, which have filed bids in the procurement tender by the deadline on Monday, are: consortium Max Inform, comprising OM Sofia and Market Links; TCTV tie-up formed by Archer Ideas, Piero 97 MA and Sova 5, and DVB-T Consult consortium, comprising Argent 2002, IPR Consulting, Smart and Market Test, the communications ministry said in a statement.

The value of the contract is 10 million levs ($6.5 million/5.1 million euro).

The winner must offer accessible information about the deadlines for halting analogue terrestrial TV broadcasting in Bulgaria and the choice of decoders necessary for the free watching of digital TV.

In March, Bulgaria announced it will stop analogue TV broadcasting on September 1, 2013. There will be a six-month overlap when digital and analogue broadcasting will be used simultaneously, starting from March 1, 2013.

(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)