GREEK ANTENNA TO BID AGAIN FOR BULGARIA TV LICENCE

Views on BG | December 13, 2001, Thursday // 00:00

Reuters

Greece's Antenna TV that it would again bid to obtain a Bulgarian nationwide television licence following a high court ruling which retracted a licence it had won last year.

In November 2000, Bulgaria awarded its second private nationwide TV licence to Nova Televisia, a local station owned by Antenna. The decision was appealed by another contender, Media Broadcasting Services, majority owned by Sweden's Modern Times Group , and the court ruled in favor of the appeal, which said the procedure lacked transparency.

``When there is a new procedure, we will take part for sure,'' Antenna TV Board Chairman Minos Kyriakou said during an interview with Nova Televisia, which now broadcasts a 24-hour programme solely for the Sofia region.

``We have no intention of selling Nova Televisia,'' he said, referring to speculation in the Bulgarian media that Antenna may withdraw from the TV channel after the court's ruling. ``I repeat -- we came to invest in Bulgaria and are here to stay.''

A new procedure for granting a nationwide TV licence is expected in the first half of 2002.
Kyriakou said that Antenna, which bought Nova Televisia in August 2000, would decrease its spending on the Bulgarian channel until it obtains a national licence.

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