TV licences: Procedures to start Tuesday morning

The bidding rounds and how they will proceed

The final stage for the issuing of the TV broadcasting licences is scheduled to start on Tuesday morning, with the remaining 8 candidates still in the running, after the elimination of Epsilon TV, preparing their bids. According to the proceedings, the representatives of the remaining candidates will each be assigned an area in one of the 4 floors at the building of the General Secretariat of Information and Communications (GGEE), with the heads of the teams placed in specially prepared quarters in the building. Each room will have a computer connected to a closed software installed, but no internet access will be allowed, a ballot and a printer, where the bids will be placed with the signatures of the candidates. Once the heads of each of the candidate teams enter their respective rooms, they will not be allowed to communicate with anyone inside or outside the building, while they will be escorted to the toilette by a police officer. The offer will be determined by the auction coordinator, with the 8 bidders stating whether they agree with it or not. This will continue until 2 of the 8 bidders have remained in the process, at which point the remanning two will be called to submit a sealed written offer at a higher price than the one the electronic auction was stopped. This procedure will continue in the second round, etc until the four remaining licenses are auctioned off. The bidder that is eliminated in the one on one final stage of each auction will not be eligible to take part in the next round of biding. It is estimated that each round will last about 10 hours, with some breaks in between. The whole procedure is expected to be finished by the early morning of Thursday.