05. 04. 2006

THE RACE FOR FREQUENCIES IS ON

BELGRADE, April 5, 2006 – Twelve television broadcasters, whose applications were complete and submitted within the set deadline, have met the legal requirements needed to qualify for the public frequency allocation competition for five national broadcast licenses, whereas the applications of four media companies have been rejected, announced the Serbian Public Broadcast Agency, RRA, in its press release. The applications submitted by TV Avala, TV B92, TV BK, TV Kosava, MTS, Pink, Pro TV, Sigma Television, TV 5, Fox TV, Happy TV and CME SR TV have been accepted, according to the press release posted at the Public Broadcast Council website. Due to failure to meet the legal requirements, incomplete documentation or untimely submitted applications, TV Politika’s bid was rejected. The RTL’s application was also rejected over its “disputable” ownership structure” since more than 49 percent of the company capital is foreign. TV A was disqualified as it failed to pay the required fee as well as IBC which is a so-called socially-owned company. Nine radio broadcasters whose applications for five national radio broadcast frequencies were accepted are as follows: Kis FM, Pro FM, B92, Indeks, S, Fokus, Roadstar, Sigma FM and TDI. The applications submitted by another seven radio stations were rejected: YU Radio (100 percent state ownership), MIP Radio (failure to pay the application fee), Radio Politika (for a variety of reasons), Radio Novosti (on the grounds of incomplete documentation), Radio Fleka and Radio Grada (foreign ownership share over 49 percent) and BS FM (100 percent socially owned capital). Panonija TV, Most TV and Super TV from Subotica have qualified for the public competition for regional broadcast licenses covering the territory of Vojvodina, the northern Serbian province. The following television stations will be competing for the Belgrade City broadcast licences: Art TV, Enter TV, Kosava, SOS kanal, Metropolis, Most, Palma, Televizija Plus and Studio B.